Brennan, you've been articulate in this post and respectful in the sense that you've not insulted anyone. What do you propose happens to the islanders, though? My friend over there has a successful career, is happy there and enjoys life there. So do her fellow inhabitants. What would you have them do if Argentina were ever to gain sovereignty?

"2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development."

Through its failure to respect the terms of the United Nations Charter on the right to self-determination, Argentina sought to frustrate self-government in the Falkland Islands, he said.  The civil service in the Falkland Islands was free of corruption and acted only on the advice of the Executive Council, whose voting members were all elected members of the Legislative Council.  His Government did not have senior officials appointed by the United Kingdom Government to determine policy or run its affairs.

He said that, while there was not movement in the Falkland Islands for independence, it closely guarded its right to determine its own affairs.  The Argentine claim to the Falklands was baseless because it relied solely on the dubious bases of history and territorial integrity.  The so-called occupation of the Falklands probably never happened, and if it did, was very short lived.  In any event, the so-called occupation was over 160 years ago.  It was both a practical and political impossibility to roll back history 160 years and expect to find happy solutions.  The doctrine of territorial integrity relied on the myth of occupation.  Self-determination for the people of the Falkland Islands must be the guiding principle for the United Kingdom, Argentina and the Committee.  The people of the Falkland Islands did not wish to change from British administration to an Argentine administration."

And what was Argentina's view on the islanders? Someone asked what Argentina would do if it took over - here's what they said:

"At no time, stated Uruguay’s representative, did Argentina challenge the right of the people of the Malvinas to freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development.  Argentina had always said it would respect the way of life of the inhabitants of the Malvinas.  Those inhabitants could choose to live under either Argentine or British sovereignty.  But they could not choose to be British subjects while living on Argentine territory."

So Argentina would throw them out if they wanted to stay British. Never mind they've been there for generations. How is kicking them out of their homes if they don't want to be ruled by Argentina "respecting their way of life"?

And despite Argentina saying in 2003 that it "at no time challenged the right of the people" on the Falklands to "determine their own political status", two years later, at another meeting where this time the Falklands didn't have a representative present, the Argentinian delegation called "for the seminar to adopt a recommendation that Falkland Islanders do not have the right of self-determination." So, since it no longer suited to accept the Falklanders' rights, Argentina tried to get them revoked. A representative from Gibraltar challenged Argentina's motion, noting

"What I would like to know is which was the occupying power that provided the honourable gentleman with his genetic code because he does not look like an Aztec or an Inca to me. What we have in South America, in Argentina where he comes from, are the people of the occupying power eventually rebelling against their mother country, Spain, and decolonising. By his criteria they would not be entitled to that right."

"As if that were not enough, the honourable member presents himself before this seminar and produces self serving arguments by deliberately selectively quoting from the UN established documents list. The UN has never said that the people of Gibraltar or the people of the Falkland Islands don't have the right to self-determination because there is somebody that want the place in which they live, and they have been living there in the case of the Falkland Islands only since 1833 and in the case of Gibraltar only since 1704. That is utter and complete nonsense.", adding it was a "travesty and indeed a democratic deficit" to consider Argentina's argument "when the Falkland Islanders are not here to put the contrary case for themselves." The motion Argentina put forward was not carried.

Thank you for posting that, Stuart.