8th March 2013
The Falklands referendum – the islanders’ right to be heard and to decide
On 10th and 11th March voters in the Falkland Islands will be taking part in a referendum on whether they want to stay being British.
They have decided to organise the referendum because they want the world to hear what they think and want for the islands where they live and for future generations. They want to speak out in a way that is clear and that is democratic. They are fed up with the current Government of Argentina’s bullying, with its insistence that they are people who have no voice and should have no vote about what happens to the place they, their parents and generations before them call home.
They really hope that the world respect their right to self-determination, will listen to what they have to say and support the outcome.
One of the stories I hear most often – I’ve read it again in “information” circulated around Lima this week by the Argentine authorities – is that the Islands, having been Argentinian, were seized by the United Kingdom in 1833 and that the local population and the “legitimate authorities” expelled.
This all sounds rather serious. But a frustrating thing is that none of it is true.
British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands dates back to 1765, before even the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata had been established by the Spanish state. No civilian population was expelled from the Falkland Islands in January 1833. The only people who were made to leave were the members of the Argentine military garrison that had been sent to the islands three months earlier to take what was already British sovereign territory.
The early history of the Islands is complex, involving French, Spanish and British settlers. But what is clear is that the Islands were never Argentine, despite what the Government of Argentina now says.
For a very different perspective on the history of the Islands, I recommend this recent publication by the Falkland Islands Government.
I also keep reading things written and said by Cristina Kirchner’s government about the “situación colonial”.
This ignores the reality of who the people of the islands are and how they are governed. The people of the Falkland Islands have their own government, they make their own laws, they run their own economy and control their own resources.
True, the population is an immigrant population just as the population of Argentina is today. But unlike Argentina the islands had no indigenous population before they were settled. Decades before the wave of Italian, Spanish and German emigration to Argentina in the second half of the 19th century, many of the families from whom today’s islanders are descended were already well established.
Today’s Falkland Islanders have every right to decide how they want to be governed – this right of self-determination is a right accepted as a right so fundamental that it is enshrined in Article 1 of the United Nations Charter.
As well as wanting the world to hear what they think through this weekend’s referendum, the people of the Falkland Islands want to have a good and healthy relationship with Argentina. This is an ambition that the British Government shares with them.
Everyone – the islanders, the people of Argentina, the countries of the region – stands to gain from it: in fisheries and transport, in trade and communications, in maritime safety and tourism. A number of people here in Lima have commented to me that talking up disputes with neighbours to distract attention from internal problems is an old trick.
True, but it has almost never helped to make things better. In the Islands and in Britain people are looking forward to a return to the happy and prosperous relationship with Argentina that our two great countries enjoyed throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Dear Mr. James Dauris , !st.of all:I ´m writing this comment with the FULL respect in re. of opinions of other people.But I really CAN ´T agree to the comment above . SORRY! Esp. to #1. Everyone should know that the right of SELF-DETERMINATION is the basis of UN-CHARTA ‘”1. Thats ´why the Falklanders have the full right to stay British. PM David Cameroon is really right by saying , that we will not negotiate with the Argentine government for they just were not elected in free , democratic elections. In fact, there were no elections during the last 6 years at all.So, have Mr.Devovlerislas simply forgotten the meaning of HUMAN RIGHTS ?!
Best wishes, liebe Grüssle, Ingo-Steven Wais, Stuttgar/Wuerttemberg
Dear Mr. Devloverislas,
dear Mr. James Dauries,
1st.of all: I ´m writing this comment of mine with the FULL respect in re. of the opinions of other people ! But I really CAN ´T agree to the comment above.
ESP. to # 1. For everyone should no, the the right of self-determination is the basis of the UN-CHARTA, # 1.That ´s why it ´s totally clear, that the Falklanders have the full right, to remains and stay BRITISH. Plus: There is another very , very important point . PM David Cameroon is right by saying NO to any kind of negotiations withe the female Argentine ´sPM . (FERNANDEZ?) Why? Because she just feel the need for DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS ! Her father just told her: Her my daughter I ´m too old , to sick- pls.take over the GVNM: And make the best of it. Or better: Make the best of what you might think what ´sgood for Argentina, whats good for the country. In other words : It ´s unimpossible to tals whit person like her or she. Have Mr. Devovlerislas simply forgotten the meaning of “HUMAN RIGHTS” ?!.
Respectfully, Best wishes ,Ingo-Steven Wais, Stuttgart/ F.R.Germany
For the record things have to be set straight, even though this blog, dated March 8th 2013, is already like stale bread.
1) The Falkland Islanders do not have a right of self-determination, cited in Article 1 of the United Nations Charter. According to General Assembly resolution 2065 (XX) Question of the Falkland Islands/Malvinas the islanders constitute a “population” not a “people”.
2) It is clear now on April 1st that very few countries – not even the USA – have supported the outcome of the referendum on March10th,11th.
3) The islands were administered, not continuously, from Buenos Aires from 1767 to 1833. At the time they were seized by the British in 1833, the islands formed part of the Political and Military Commandery of the Malvinas Islands and islands adjoining Cape Horn in the Atlantic Sea, under the commandership of Luis Vernet.
4) The history of the islands by the Falkland Islands Government, which you recommend, is, as one would expect, a one-sided version.
5) The population of the Falkland Islanders may have limited self-government but, as they retain a link with the parent country, they are a still a colony in all but name.
6) It is naive of the British Government to think that it can “have good and healthy relations with Argentina” so long as it refuses to discuss the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands/Malvinas.
Dear James Dauris,
of course I ´ve also read and heard about these so-called “news”.
But I `m also really doubting if they are true or not.
To be honest : To me they are just lies. And – by the way – not very fair.
So they might be – in your words – sounding ” rather serious “.
But if you ´re checking them exactly the result is the opposite : Lies.
So thanks for drawing attention to the facts in your proper report again.
Bw, Ingo-Steven Wais, Stuttgart/Cardiff