MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

MLAs Barkman and Short ready to defend Falklands' self determination at UN C24 meeting

Members of the delegation with a Falklands flag in front of the US Congress in Washington

A team from the Falklands Islands is currently in the United States, more precisely in Washington for a series of political contacts in Congress and the State Department.

The team includes members of the Legislative Assembly, MLA Teslyn Barkman and MLA Gavin Short, plus a Junior ambassador, and in the next hours will be moving to New York to address the Decolonization Committee, or C24, at the United Nations standing up for the Falkland Islanders right to self determination.

In effect, Falkland Islanders just like people the world over, have the right to determine their own future, after all self determination is a fundamental right enshrined in Article One, Paragraph Two of the United Nations Charter.

Good evening Washington. Team #Falklands is in town. Quite a productive day with subjects covered from IUU fishing through to the geo political situation in the Southern Cone. Good to meet new people & renew old acquaintances. Another lively day tomorrow  pic.twitter.com/C6fcogMXsC

— Gavin Phillip Short (@gav424) June 11, 2024

However in the Falkland Islands it does not always feel this way as our right to self determination is not something we can take for granted; it is something we have to argue for on a daily basis, whether in social media, in the press or in the United Nations itself.

MLA Barkman before arriving to Canada and the US, and visiting several Caribbean countries, attended a C24 Regional Seminar held in Venezuela where she made the case for Falkland Islanders right to self determination and how this is at the heart of the Falkland Islands relation with the United Kingdom.

On the occasion she said that the “UK saved the Islands in 1982, and recognized our voice was paramount, and freedom of peoples means Self Determination. From then on our democratic voice was respected and remains a core value of the UK government. Our status changed away from a colony to a democracy that chooses a relationship with the UK as a British Overseas Territory, and we blossomed.”

At present, a team from the Falkland Islands, including Members of @FIAssembly, @teslynbark and @gav424, are in the United States, standing up for Falkland Islanders' right to self-determination. As part of their visit they will address the @UN in New York. #Falklands pic.twitter.com/ZT9T8hBWlD

— FIG Representative to the UK and Europe (@FalklandsRepUK) June 12, 2024