Chief Minister Address to UN Fourth Committee - 645/2024

The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo KC MP, has delivered his annual address to the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee (Fourth Committee) of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

In his opening remarks, the Chief Minister reminded the Committee that Spain ceded sovereignty over Gibraltar, in perpetuity, in 1713 and that there is no legal value in any principle of international law in the General Assembly resolutions that Spain relies on to pursue its claim.

Furthermore, the General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) explicitly "declared" the existence of the right of self-determination, and forms the legal basis for Gibraltar's decolonisation in line with the freely and democratically expressed wishes of the People of Gibraltar. It is the same Resolution that underpins the historic agreement reached last week between the UK and Mauritius, completing Mauritius' decolonisation, in which context Gibraltar would be equivalent to pre-independence Non-Self-Governing Territory of Mauritius.

The Chief Minister went on to remind the Chair that this same principle of self-determination is what is guiding the negotiations, alongside the UK, with the European Union to agree a new relationship with the EU and the hopes to create an area of 'shared prosperity' that delivers mutual economic benefit for both Gibraltar and the surrounding Campo de Gibraltar in Spain. The Chief Minister was explicit that fair, balanced and pragmatic solutions that are sovereignty-neutral are possible as long as the political will exists.

In closing, the Chief Minister argued that the only solution to the removal of Gibraltar from the UN's list of Non-Self-Governing Territories is one that is in keeping with the wishes of the Gibraltarians, and nothing else.

The Chief Minister will return to Gibraltar on Tuesday 8^th October.

The Chief Minister's address is available in full here.