decisions in cases where the Covenant has been directly invoked before the courts. Against this background it has not been considered necessary or appropriate to establish any mechanisms to harmonize the Covenant and the domestic law of Pitcairn.
7.
Of the four islands in the Pitcairn group, only Pitcairn is inhabited, having a population of some 50 permanent inhabitants. The social structure of the population is akin to that of a single village. The administrative system by which the affairs of the community are regulated is simple by modern standards.
8.
2.
Information relating to articles in parts. I, II and III of the Covenant
The following information is supplementary to that provided in the first and second reports of the United Kingdom on Pitcairn and given by the United Kingdom delegation at the meetings of the Human Rights Committee which discussed these reports. Articles in relation to which no new legislative or administrative developments have occurred are not included in this report. Inclusion of particular points does not necessarily mean that the United Kingdom considers that they fall within the scope of particular articles of the Covenant.
Article 1
9. No restriction can be or has ever been imposed on the right of the inhabitants of Pitcairn to exercise the choice of self-determination or freely to determine their political status and economic, social and cultural development. On the occasion of various official visits to the Island in recent years, no wish for independent status has been expressed. The option of independence has been specifically discussed on various occasions, when the inhabitants rejected it as impractical and undesirable. By unanimous decision in June 1968, the Island Council declared that it had no wish at that time to change the nature of the relationship between the Government and people of Pitcairn and the Government of the United Kingdom. The Council further declared that independent statehood would be administratively and economically impracticable for Pitcairn. The declaration has not been rescinded nor have either the Island Council or the people of Pitcairn expressed any wish for a change in status. Nothing that was said to the Governor when he visited the Island in September 1985 suggested that they had changed their minds. This confirmed the position found by the Commissioner for Pitcairn when he visited the Islands in June 1983. There has been no interference by the United Kingdom at any time with the right of Pitcairners to make free use for their own ends of their natural wealth and resources. There are no exports of produce or manufactured goods from Pitcairn nor any contribution by Pitcairn to the financial revenue of the United Kingdom.
10. It has not been necessary in Pitcairn to take any measure to prevent public and private support for apartheid. No faintest suggestion of support for the apartheid régime of South Africa having ever been evinced in Pitcairn, it has not been necessary for the administration to take any preventive measures. By its very origins, the tiny population of Pitcairn recognizes the admixture of peoples of differing ethnic origins. In a formal measure requested by the Government of the United Kingdom, the administration has prohibited the importation of Krugerrand coins to demonstrate its overt opposition to the apartheid régime of South Africa.