TNAG-2512-FCO40-3665-Future-of-Hong-Kong-International-Rights-and-Obligations-(IR-1992 — Page 272

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CODE RAD

Mr Tucker (CSCE Unit W116A)

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CSCE COMMITMENTS: UK ISLANDS AND DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

1. You asked if International Section could do some research on this subject. I should begin by pointing out difficulties in the terminology used when referring to Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man; these islands are not, in fact, realms (as previous minuting has suggested) but are Crown Dependencies. For ease of reference and to avoid confusion with other UK dependencies I have used the term UK Islands when referring to them.

2.

I have now looked through the relevant files from 1974 and 1975 (1974: WDW 1/11 Parts A to F on CSCE: principles governing relations between states; 1975: WDW 1/2 Parts A to D on CSCE: Committee 1: the principles, WDW 1/15 Parts A to C on the CSCE Final Act and WDW 1/20 and ENZ 14/1 on legal aspects of the CSCE) and am afraid that they do not clarify the situation. There is no evidence in the files which I examined to suggest that an explicit decision was made regarding on whose behalf the commitments were made. The applicability of the CSCE Final Act to Gibraltar was discussed a number of times during negotiations of the Final Act because certain of the Principles being negotiated were directly relevant to Gibraltar, e.g. the inviolability of frontiers. However, these discussions were concerned with the undertakings which would be made by the UK and Spanish Governments under the CSCE and their applicability to the Gibraltar situation rather than with any undertakings which the UK Government might make on behalf of Gibraltar. The question of the Final Act's applicability to other Dependent Territories and to UK Islands such as Jersey was not raised.

3. However, West and South European Section RAD's files on Gibraltar do provide at least part of the answer; in a submission (attached) to Mr Bullard dated 15 October 1980 T Daunt, SED, states that "the CSCE Final Act applies to Gibraltar by virtue of British sovereignty and also by virtue of its 5th introductory paragraph which provides for its geographical scope to apply throughout Europe". This implies that the CSCE applies to all territories over which Britain has sovereignty and which are in Europe, but the Legal Advisers would be better placed than I to comment on whether this is in fact the case (they might in particular wish to comment on the situation with respect to the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus).

4. It may also be worth noting that the reference in the list of Participating States in paragraph 1 of the Final Act to "the United Kingdom" and not to "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" was the subject of some discussion right at the end of the CSCE negotiation process. The text of the Final Act, including the reference to "the United Kingdom", was agreed in Geneva in July 1975 but the UK Delegation subsequently asked the CSCE Secretariat if this reference could be corrected to read "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". The Secretariat was unwilling to alter the reference but it was agreed

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