Picardo bids farewell to UN with pledge on self-determination and hopes for post-treaty friendship with Spain

The case against the Gibraltarians’ right to self-determination was based on “outdated” and “worthless” UN resolutions obtained by a Spanish dictator that Spain itself had disowned, Fabian Picardo said on Monday in his final speech as Chief Minister to the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation [C24].

In a speech that at time struck a strongly valedictory tone, Mr Picardo said Gibraltar was listed as a non-self-governing territory 80 years ago in 1946 and that Gibraltarians, who first appeared before the UN in 1963, would continue doing so until the UN removed Gibraltar from the list.

But the message, while tough toward the UN, was conciliatory in tone toward Spain as Mr Picardo described a “historic” treaty reached since the last time he appeared before the UN.

He said Gibraltar wanted to a future of friendship with Spain and had started building “…bridges of prosperity where a dictator slammed closed gates of iron”.

Mr Picardo is the fourth Chief Minister to address the UN and the one who has done so on most occasions.

And while this was the last time he addressed the C24 as Chief Minister, he made clear he would not be the last political leader of Gibraltar to stand before the committee defending the Gibraltarians’ right to self-determination.

“Until you finally act, we will be here,” he said.

“Until you delist us, we will persevere.”

“Until you do the right thing, we will come.”

Mr Picardo said future generations of Gibraltarians would continue to call on the UN to “do what law, logic and justice demand of you” and remove Gibraltar from the list of non-self-governing territories.

He said the only thing delaying Gibraltar’s delisting were two resolutions procured by Spain in the 1960s after “relentless lobbying” by the Franco dictatorship.

“Think about that, Excellencies,” he told the diplomats gathered in New York, reminding them how Franco had tried to “strangle” Gibraltar by closing the border.

“The case against the Gibraltarians rests on texts lobbied through this organisation by a tyrant whom modern Spain herself disowns.”

“Those resolutions are not merely outdated.”

“In international law and in universal morality, they are worthless.”

Mr Picardo told the UN committee that Gibraltarian resolve had held firm through the closed frontier years and through subsequent campaigns to pile pressure on Gibraltar.

“No passage of time will ever erode it,” he said.

And yet Mr Picardo made clear to the Committee of 24 that his was not a message delivered in anger, “but in hope”.

He told the UN committee the UK and the EU had now concluded a “historic” treaty that would “sweep away the physical barriers of a bygone era”, delivering frontier fluidity for Gibraltarians and Spaniards whose “loves, lives and livelihoods” cross the frontier.

He stressed the agreement left sovereignty “aside and untouched” and the right of the Gibraltarians to self-determination “entirely uncompromised”.

The treaty contained a “without-prejudice” sovereignty clause that was “the tightest…in the history of documentation on Gibraltar”.

It had been negotiated with the full participation of the Government of Gibraltar and the UK would enter it only because the Gibraltar Parliament had called on it to do so, Mr Picardo said.

He added that a concordat between Gibraltar and the UK set out that implementation of the treaty was Gibraltar’s responsibility.

“It seems that everyone is prepared to recognise our right to determine our future, except the committee that was set up precisely for that purpose,” Mr Picardo said.

“The treaty proves what I have told this committee for 14 years; that the Gibraltarians are not the obstacle to good neighbourly relations, we are its greatest champions.”

“We can build prosperity with Spain. We can build friendship with Spain.”

“We want to. We are doing so.”

“But we will never, in exchange, give up our right to self-determination.”

“Cooperation, yes. Always.”

“Capitulation, no. Never.”

“But let us now build bridges of prosperity where a dictator slammed closed gates of iron.”

Mr Picardo said “none of this” would be finished in his time as Chief Minister, “nor perhaps in the time of my successor”.

But “we have begun”.

In that context, he again called on the UN committee to send a visiting mission to Gibraltar and “stop doing nothing”, urging its members to take steps to delist Gibraltar.

“Sixty-three years of silence is not neutrality,” he said.

“It is a failure of this committee’s most basic duty, which is to the people of the territories, not to the claims of States.”

And as he closed his last speech as Chief Minister in New York on Monday, Mr Picardo said he would “if necessary” return in future as a petitioner to speak on behalf of Gibraltar’s civil society.

“The torch of our political freedom is passing to a new generation of Gibraltarians,” he said.

“They will not ask this committee for permission to be who we are.”

“They will ask this committee only ‘when’ you finally intend to honour your own responsibilities under the charter.”

“So ask not whether the Gibraltarians will ever give up their right to self-determination.”

“Ask only how long you will make them wait to recognise it.”

“Because you can wait out a Chief Minister. But you cannot wait out the Gibraltarians.”

“Thank you, madam Chair, and goodbye. For now.”