Statement by Counselor María Paula Mac Loughlin

October 20, 2016

Argentina will use the right of reply because of the comments made by the distinguished delegate of the United Kingdom.

Argentina wishes to reiterate the particular situation regarding the Argentine territory of the Islas Malvinas in accordance with the content of the interpretative declaration made by the Argentine Republic at the time of ratification of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on their Destruction on September 14, 1999, which until now has not been modified and constitutes the main basis of our extension.

The only part of the Argentine territory that is affected by Antipersonnel Mines is the Islas Malvinas, but Argentina is prevented from accessing these mines in order to comply with the obligations assumed by this Convention, since that territory, together with the South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas are illegally occupied by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and are the subject of a sovereignty dispute.

In fact, the United Nations General Assembly has recognized the existence of a sovereignty dispute between the Argentine Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning the Islas Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas, and has urged both governments to resume negotiations in order to find, as soon as possible, a peaceful and definitive solution to the dispute. The General Assembly has imposed a good offices mission on the Secretary-General of the United Nations to assist both parties in the fulfillment of that mandate, who shall report to the Assembly on the progress made.

In the same sense, the Special Committee on Decolonization, that annually adopts a resolution expressing that this special and particular colonial situation is to be brought to an end, in a peaceful and negotiated manner, of the dispute over sovereignty and calls on both governments to resume negotiations to that end. The last of these resolutions was adopted on June 23, 2016.

However, despite repeated statements by the United Nations and other regional and international forums, the United Kingdom persists in its refusal to restart such negotiations.
On the occasion of its request for extension, the 1° October 2009, Argentina presented a schematic plan to implement Article 5 of the Ottawa Convention in the areas of dispute during the 10 years of the extension, in the event that the sovereignty negotiations between the Argentine Republic and the United Kingdom will be resumed and, in this context, both countries will reach agreement on the clearance of anti-personnel mines (including unexploded ordnance).

The Argentine Republic reaffirms its sovereignty rights over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas that are an integral part of its national territory.