(10th Plenary meeting) Special Committee on Decolonization (C-24) - 2025 session

Good morning. We will commence shortly. Thank you. Good morning. The 10th meeting of the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples is called to order. Before proceeding further, I wish to inform the committee that I have received an additional request from the following delegation to participate in this session of the committee as observer: Serbia. With the consent of the committee and in accordance with its established practice, I invite the delegation to take a place at the committee's table. I would like to remind States that are not members of the Committee and who wish to speak that they have first to register to participate in this session via the e-delegate portal so that the Committee can consent to their participation in line with established practice. Only the inscription on the list of speakers module on e-delegate does not suffice. If you have any questions or require clarification, please contact the Secretariat. I now invite the Special Committee to resume its consideration of the question of Gibraltar. In accordance with the decision taken at our third plenary meeting on 9 June, we will hear today the Chief Minister of Gibraltar Then, we will hear committee members and observers that wish to take the floor. You may wish to recall that we heard the petitioner under this item already last Wednesday, 11 June. With the consent of the committee and in accordance with established practice, I now give the floor to the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Mr Fabian Picardo. Sir, you have the floor. Welcome. Please.

Madam Chair, I warmly congratulate you on your re-election as chair of this important committee. The work of this committee will not be complete until the remaining non-self-governing territories on your list have been decolonized. Gibraltar is one of those nations. Representatives of the people of Gibraltar have been appearing before this committee since the 1960s. Those who came before us never gave up. Those who will come after us will never give up. We will continue our work to ensure that our nation is removed from the list of non-self-governing territories in keeping only with one principle, the principle of the self-determination of peoples. We will never surrender that. We will never give that up. We will be here to insist always on that right, a right that crystallized with General Assembly resolution 1514 Roman XV. and a right which is now recognised as a fundamental principle of customary international law. We will also insist on the natural consequence of that right, our right to preserve the integrity of our territory. These, and only these, are the principles that must apply to the decolonisation of our homeland. the inalienable right of the Gibraltarians to decide their own future within the internationally recognised boundaries of our territory. That takes legal and moral precedence over any claims our neighbour may improperly advance. We take, therefore, huge comfort from the Chagos opinion of the International Court of Justice. The court in that matter held that the right to territorial integrity of a non-self-governing territory is a natural consequence of the right to self-determination. The whole of our territory, isthmus and waters included, must remain intact during the decolonization process. any attempt to interfere with our territorial integrity is expressly prohibited under paragraph 6 of resolution 1514. So, forget the irrelevant references you have heard year after year, and will no doubt hear this year again, to resolutions of the General Assembly from the 1960s that Spain says support its territorial claim to our homeland. Moreover, The resolution Spain's referred to originate from claims to Gibraltar at a time when Spain was not a democracy. General Franco is now recognized as a mass murderer by the progressive government of the Socialist Party in Spain. It was his dictatorship that first decided to use this committee as a forum for prosecuting its claims to the land of my people, the land of my parents. and grandparents, the land of my children, our land and ours alone. Madam Chair, that awful dictator died half a century ago. The representatives of today's modern and progressive Spain should reflect with embarrassment on their reliance on a dictator's legacy here. I celebrate the excellent approach of the current Spanish government to the recognition of Franco as a brutal dictator. I am nonetheless saddened by their continued dependence here on the useless resolutions he sought. But in any event... Nothing in those resolutions takes precedence over the inalienable legal right of self-determination of the people of a non-self-governing territory. Of that, there is no question. And therefore, you must disregard everything you have been told repeatedly by Spain. You must act to help the people of Gibraltar on the path to decolonisation. That is your mandate and your obligation under international law. And you must do so by having regard only to our freely expressed wishes in accordance with right of self-determination. Having been on your list since the formation of this committee for over 60 years, I am here to tell you that you are taking too long to act. The committee should not shrink from its mandate just because another state comes here seeking to stake a medieval claim to our land. Stop doing nothing. Start planning a visiting mission. Take action now. Because if you don't, you play into the hands of those who delegitimize the whole of this organization. I stand with you in defending the important work of this committee and of the United Nations. Those of us who believe in the rules-based international legal order want the UN to succeed. We want this committee to succeed. I welcome your proactive approach, Madam Chair. I implore you to start a process to bring a visiting mission to Gibraltar with the support of my people and the administering power. Just last week, we have been able to agree with the European Union and Spain how our relationship with the EU will be regulated in the future UK-EU treaty on Gibraltar. Let us also try to see progress on our delisting. Under the new arrangements with the EU, I can see a new and more positive relationship between us and Spain. Leaving aside and untouched the issue of sovereignty, we believe we can see a new partnership for prosperity for our people, a new opening for the whole of our region to become a hub for investment from outside the EU, a future for more and better jobs and stronger and better human relations. and all, Madam Chair, respecting the highest regulatory and law enforcement standards and the highest levels of security for our people. We will no longer have border controls between us as we join a common travel area with Schengen, but we will work together to ensure the protection of our respective jurisdictions, cooperation and partnership in key areas of trade, immigration and law enforcement, but all without prejudice to our respective positions on sovereignty. That is what Prime Minister Sanchez promised the people of the region in 2018 when he became president of the Spanish government. He told his people he would seek solutions beyond the eternal issue of the sovereignty dispute. This new deal does just that, leaving the sovereignty issues untouched. Because when it comes to the decolonisation of Gibraltar, there is no doubt as to which rule applies. There can be only one. the right of the people of Gibraltar to self-determination. Our choice and nothing will ever change our desire to choose to remain 100% British from the northernmost tip of our land to the southernmost extent of our waters. We will never give up one grain of our land, one drop of our water or one breath of our air. But we will always be ready to partner for progress and prosperity for the people in our region. Come and see for yourself. You won't be disappointed. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank the Chief Minister of Gibraltar. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Spain. Spain, you have the floor, please.

Madam Chair, I wish to begin this statement by thanking the committee for its work and its commitment to defending the UN Charter, in particular its commitment to complying with resolution 1514. Spain is grateful for this momentum and will continue to support this body. My country also thanks Timor-Leste for the recent holding of the regional Pacific seminar that was held in Dili. Spain believes in an international order based on respect for and compliance with norms, which are the very core of this organization. Spain continues to be the victim of a colonial situation which gravely affects our territorial integrity. We believe it to be an obstacle which runs counter to international law. As such, we reiterate our position on the non-self-governing territory of Gibraltar. We underscore that the aforementioned 1514 resolution in paragraph 6 declares any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of national unity and territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. For its part, resolution 2553 on Gibraltar urges to see its decolonization in accordance with this crucial principle that is territorial integrity. The history of this dispute is a long one. The history began after the military conquest on the part of a Anglo-Dutch military squadron in 1704. There was the expulsion of the indigenous population of Gibraltar and the Spanish cession through the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 of the city and castle of Gibraltar, not the waters around the rock, nor the isthmus that have been illegally occupied since the 19th century, nor did we see the superadjacent space. This colonial situation is directly linked to the military use of the island by the administering power of the non-self-governing territory. Resolution 3163 of the General Assembly also called for the withdrawal of military installations and bases located on non-self-governing territories. The interests of the inhabitants of Gibraltar were affected by the British decision to abandon the EU; they placed the. the territory in a very complex situation from a legal point of view. The EU and Spain on one side and the UK on the other have tried to remedy this situation without prejudicing the inhabitants of the NSGT nor those of neighbouring Spain that are gravely affected by the remaining the persistence of a colonial situation which causes imbalance and inequity. However, at a historic juncture, many ministers and commissioners as well as the British and the Spanish delegation reached a lasting political agreement on the fundamental aspects of a future agreement between the EU and the UK in regards to Gibraltar. The primary goal of the future agreement is to guarantee the peaceful coexistence and prosperity of all the region. With this goal, we will eliminate all physical barriers. The fence will fall. That is the last physical barrier that remains on mainland Europe territory. This will guarantee the free circulation of people and goods between the territory of Gibraltar and the surrounding area. That will work to the benefit of the tens of thousands of people that move daily in both directions. Moreover, we'll open the airport to both British and European and Spanish flights. That will make the area a core of prosperity. Moreover, the agreement creates an obligatory cooperation mechanism to broach environmental challenges, including dumping and landfill. The agreement has committed to producing a financial mechanism which will promote cohesion, support employment and that will significantly reduce inequalities in the area. The aim is to improve the quality of life of the 300,000 inhabitants of the zone and particularly those of cross-border workers. A joint statement was made on the 11th of June saying that the future agreement safeguards the respective legal positions of Spain and the UK in terms of sovereignty and jurisdiction, as regardless of the agreement. We therefore call upon UK to fully decolonise Gibraltar with respect for the territorial integrity principle, and that will see them aligning with the principles of this committee. They must put into practice the appeal made by the United Nations to Spain and the UK to hold conversations on the issue Gibraltar, with the goal of, in the spirit of the Brussels Declaration of 1984 and heeding the interests of the people of Gibraltar, the need to reach a negotiated, lasting solution to the dispute. We recall that these appeals have their legal precedent in resolution 2070, which calls upon both parties to have bilateral discussions without delay. Subsequently, resolution 2231 sees the General Assembly call upon both parties to produce negotiations, take into account the interests of the people and calls upon the administering power to, without hindrance, decolonise Gibraltar. There was also a date set to put an end to the colonisation of Gibraltar in resolution 2429. The administering power was called upon to put an end to the colonial situation in Gibraltar before 1 October 1969.

I thank the distinguished representative of Spain. Does any delegation wish to take the floor for a general statement or address a question on this item? I have no request for the floor. I would now offer the floor to the Chief Minister of Gibraltar to respond, if you wish. Please, go ahead.

...to respond to the statement from the distinguished delegate from Spain. Of course, the people of Gibraltar take a completely different view. And in the modern world, the views of the people of Gibraltar are what we insist must be paramount. In particular, matters which relate to the isthmus and to Gibraltar's waters, where the High Representative of the Kingdom of Spain refers to a position set out in the Treaty of 1713. But that position ignores the the convention on the law of the sea of 1982 and indeed it ignores the fact that when we were put on the list of this committee after the second world war the territory that was put on the list is the territory of Gibraltar including its isthmus and its waters. And indeed, after the Chagos opinion and how that court made very clear to the United Kingdom that it was not possible to sever a territory in the process of decolonisation, we believe that we are on stronger ground than ever to ask that Spain now finally do recognise entirely the Britishness of our isthmus and the waters. Aside from that, Madam Speaker, which you know are our historic areas of disagreement, I am very pleased to see the distinguished delegate of Spain referring positively, as I do, to the agreement that we entered into in Brussels last week on the 11th of June, for which I'm very grateful for this committee permitting us both to address today rather than last week. We do hope that putting aside the issues of sovereignty, that will create a new opportunity for understanding and cooperation between the people Gibraltar and the people of the whole of the region, and it will lead to a stronger human partnership, the sort of human partnership that existed before the Spanish Civil War, the sort of human partnership that has existed even through the period of political attempts to keep us apart. The people of Gibraltar and the people of the region around us, in particular La Linea, San Roque and all of the towns around us, have always been able, Madam Chair, to fall in love and to make families when the politicians have been using less than generous words about us. Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to respond.

I thank the Chief Minister of Gibraltar. I will also offer the floor to the Distinguished Representative of Spain. Should you wish to have the floor to respond to any questions, you can. Spain, would you wish the floor? Please, Spain.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. We trust that the agreement reached within the European Union will serve to create a new model of peaceful coexistence between the inhabitants of Gibraltar and the neighbours in the Campo de Gibraltar, and we hope that it will correct the imbalances created by the colonial situation to create prosperity for the region. However, none of the two solutions, or any of the solutions that we might use to correct these imbalances, will substitute to unique and the only real negotiations that should take place in line with the mandates granted by this organization and this committee. The end of the colonial situation affecting Spain involves the full return of our territorial integrity and our sovereignty. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative of Spain. Taking into account our deliberations and in accordance with the Committee's established methods of work, I would like to suggest that the Committee continue its consideration of the question of Gibraltar at its next session, subject to any directives which the General Assembly may give at its 80th session. The Committee has thus concluded its consideration of this item. The Committee will have its next formal meeting tomorrow, Wednesday 18th June, at 10am in this conference room to start consideration of the item entitled Question of Falkland Islands Malvinas. The next informal consultations are scheduled for Thursday morning, 19th June. As is customary, the program will be announced in the Journal. Thank you, and our meeting is adjourned.