Sir Joe tells UN seminar Gibraltarians are ‘a people’ with right to self-determination 

Sir Joe Bossano used an address at a UN seminar on decolonisation in Nicaragua to argue that the central issue in Gibraltar’s case is whether Gibraltarians are recognised as a people, saying that this status lies at the heart of their right to self-determination and decolonisation.  

Speaking ahead of the annual meeting of the UN’s Committee of 24 in New York, Sir Joe said the decolonisation process had failed to deliver progress despite decades of discussion.  

He told delegates he had taken part in four decades of UN seminars and had seen no meaningful advance. 

“I have participated in all four decades, and I have to say with all due respect, and with deep regret, that the progress achieved in bringing about decolonization, has been zero,” he said.  

He anchored his argument in a long personal and political timeline, saying he had campaigned for Gibraltar’s self-determination since 1964, when he was 25, and was still doing so at the age of 87.  

That gave added weight to his contention that the issue had been unresolved for too long and that the UN had failed to uphold the principles it claimed to defend.  

A large part of Sir Joe’s speech centred on the proposition that Gibraltarians are not simply a population living in a disputed place, but “a people” in the sense recognised by the UN Charter and the decolonisation framework.  

He said Gibraltar was placed on the UN list of non-self-governing territories in 1946 not because of a bilateral dispute between Britain and Spain, but because its inhabitants were identified as a people whose progress toward self-government had to be monitored.  

“The decision to list Gibraltar was not because of a dispute between the two colonial powers of the time, but because we were identified as ‘a people’ to whom [UN] resolution 1541 applied fully,” he said. 

If Gibraltar is listed because there is a people to be decolonised, that people cannot be ignored when the territory’s future is discussed, he said.  

Sir Joe argued that the obligation on the UK to report annually to the UN existed only because Gibraltarians are recognised as such a people.  

“UK does this since 1946 only because we are such a people, the Gibraltarians,” he said. 

Sir Joe focused what he described as the inconsistency of Spain’s position.  

He recalled that, 10 years ago, Spain’s representative had told the seminar that Spain did not and would never recognise “any international legal personality, condition as a people, or any right to decide over the Rock, to the current inhabitants of Gibraltar”.  

Sir Joe contrasted that with more recent developments, including the 2019 tax treaty and what he said had been a noticeable change in Spain’s language since 2021, “a change which we welcomed”. 

He said the 2019 treaty on taxation gave Gibraltarians an international legal identity distinct from EU, UK and Spanish citizens, and welcomed what he said was Spain’s more recent willingness to move away from outright rejection of Gibraltar’s separate identity.  

He also pointed to treaty talks and the recent Madrid meeting between the Chief Minister and Spain’s Foreign Minister as evidence of increased recognition of Gibraltar’s institutions.  

“The Spanish press described the meeting as an invitation by him to his opposite number in Gibraltar,” Sir Joe said. 

“Again, that level of recognition of our institutions is very welcome, and we hope it will continue to define our relations for the future.”  

But Sir Joe made clear that such changes did not alter the underlying constitutional issue.  

He said both Spain and the UK continued to rely on the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht to argue that Gibraltar did not enjoy a right to self-determination, a view that Gibraltarians had always rejected.  

“Spain and UK have reserved their historical positions on Sovereignty on the treaty,” Sir Joe said.  

“So do we. The Rock is ours and only we can decide its future.” 

Sir Joe insisted that Gibraltar’s decolonisation was a matter solely between Gibraltar, as the people of the territory, and the UK, as the administering power. Spain, he said, had no role in that process.  

“Distinguished delegates, the aspirations of the Gibraltarians to exercise self-determination and achieve decolonisation are not just legitimate under international law but are indeed mandatory,” he said. 

Sir Joe used history to reinforce his point.  

He referred to the 1967 referendum, when Gibraltar overwhelmingly rejected Spanish sovereignty, and said the UN had responded by declaring that vote contrary to its resolutions.  

He described that as a denial of Gibraltar’s right to express its views and as a profound failure by the international body, adding that this exposed a contradiction at the heart of the UN’s approach and amounted to “the most disgraceful attempted betrayal of a colonial people in the history of the UN.” 

If there are no colonial people in Gibraltar, then Gibraltar should never have been listed as a non-self-governing territory in the first place, Sir Joe said. 

And if there is such a people, then their right to decide their future must be respected.  

“International law is crystal clear,” Sir Joe said.  

“If there are no colonial people, there is no one to be decolonised and the territory is not listed.” 

Gibraltar’s people, Sir Joe argued, are no less entitled to self-determination than other peoples whose decolonisation struggles were recognised by the UN. 

“We are as much a colonial people as many of the UN member states were when they fought to gain their right to self-determination,” he said. 

“As I told the seminar 10 years ago, our slogan can only be one: Hasta la victoria siempre.”