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BACKGROUND AND ARGUMENT
3. Mr Walwyn's submission of 3 October promised a further
submission on the question of two stage ratification. At that time
Mr Lennox-Boyd expressed a strong preference for this course of
action.
4.
The Convention was adopted without a vote by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989 and opened for signature on 26 January 1990. The UK signed on 19 April 1990. So far 93 countries
have ratified it including 4 EC partners and the Nordics.
5. A Ministerial meeting in February agreed six areas where the UK would have to protect its position by reserving when ratifying the
Convention. The Department of Health has since decided that a
further reservation may be required. We are still waiting for a
response from the Lord Chancellor's Department.
Meanwhile
reservations have been drafted by Legal Advisers. They will require
final clearance by home departments and the Islands (Isle of Man
and Channel Islands).
6.
Ratification for the UK is further complicated by our
responsibility for the Dependent Territories. When initially
consulted most Dependent Territories expressed a desire to study
the UK (mainland) reservations before considering their own. The
results of the February Ministerial meeting were conveyed to them.
Eight of the eleven inhabited territories have now replied
enumerating their areas of reservation. Gibraltar remains adamantly
opposed. We await substantive responses from Anguilla and Turks &
Caicos.
7. We should be in a position to ratify for the UK and the Islands following publication of the Convention on 23 October and after it has lain before Parliament for the required 21 sitting