Written evidence from Dr Alasdair Pinkerton, Reader in Geopolitics, Royal Holloway, University of London; and Dr Matthew Benwell, Lecturer in Political Geography, Newcastle University (OTS0069)

 

In preparing this evidence paper, we have drawn upon Overseas Territories-related research we have conducted over several years, and which has informed a range of peer-reviewed research papers. Most directly we draw upon evidence gathered in the preparation of our co-authored paper published in RUSI Journal in September 2016.

 

Benwell, M.C. & Pinkerton, A. 2016, 'Brexit and the British Overseas Territories' RUSI Journal, vol. 161, no. 4, pp. 8-14. DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2016.1224489

 

SUMMARY

 

 

THE GOVERNANCE OF THE OTS, INCLUDING THEIR ADHERENCE TO HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMEWORKS;

 

  1. The governance of the UK’s OTs has become the subject of political and public interest within the UK and internationally over recent years. Reports of money-laundering and financial secrecy (British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands); forcible displacement of inhabitants (British Indian Ocean Territory); and child sexual abuse (Pitcairn and St Helena) have fuelled the perception that the OTs are loosely and permissively administered and labouring under a governance deficit.
  2. The emergence of a governance deficit narrative has arguably damaged the reputation of the OTs within and beyond the UK (despite the fact that these issues have not affected all of the OTs in equal measure; for example not all the OTs host financial services), as well as undermining the UK’s claim to be a leader in tackling financial corruption and money laundering.
  3. The constitutional arrangements and models of governance intrinsic to being a UK OT ensure that the United Nations consider Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Montserrat, St Helena, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar, and Pitcairn to be Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGTs) and are therefore subject to annual attention of the UN Decolonisation Committee (‘Committee of 24’).
  4. For contested OTs such as Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, their status as NSGTs provides a conundrum that requires their status to be explained – that while being an OT provides for the pursuit of self-governance and self-determination (including referenda in which citizens have expressed their own constitutional preferences), the level of self-governance isn’t sufficient to satisfy the UN.

 

THE BENEFITS TO THE UK AND THE OTS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM;

 

  1. The 14 British OTs are a material legacy of the former British Empire. Although no longer a ‘colonial power’, the United Kingdom has an ongoing set of moral and legal obligations towards the OTs, with particular responsibilities for defence and security.
  2. The UK has provided funding for infrastructure and reconstruction projects across the OTs, although not all of these have been straightforward or trouble-free. Critical questions have been asked about the use of UK taxpayers’ money in the construction of the £285 million airport on St Helena, which has faced operational issues as a result of windshear.
  3. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 is a reminder of the UK government’s portfolio of responsibilities towards the OTs, as well as the fragility and contingent nature of the relationship between the UK and the OTs. While the emergency assistance and disaster relief provided by the UK military was welcomed and has been widely praised within the hurricane-affected OTs, the responses of the FCO and HMG Ministers have been characterised by insensitivity, inattentiveness and apparent disinterest in the plight of OT citizens.
  4. As we have argued elsewhere (RUSI, 2016), the UK’s ‘security’ obligations towards the OTs have often privileged military security and issues of territorial/maritime defence (especially in relation to the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar) to the detriment of economic, diplomatic and human security.
  5. Through the UK’s membership of the EU, the British OTs have enjoyed customs- and tariff-free access to the EU single market. This has been of financial benefit to the Falkland Islands providing a market for fish stocks caught in the South Atlantic, as well as rock lobster sourced from the waters around Tristan da Cunha (although the multi-year negotiations and bureaucratic processes required to access the EU’s tariff- and quota-free markets in the case of the latter were notably protracted).
  6. Anguilla has been proactive in outlining the benefits of its relationship with the UK as a member of the EU. Anguilla is heavily dependent on neighbouring French (Saint Martin) and Dutch Caribbean islands (Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius and Saba) for essential commodities and medical/educational services. Brexit threatens to disrupt the international cooperation that currently characterises relations among these Caribbean islands. Anguilla also receives significant development aid from the EU. The importance of this European aid became clear in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma as the UK and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regarded Anguilla as ineligible for Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

 

 

THE FINANCING OF THE OTS;

 

  1. The EU provides ongoing post-disaster reconstruction assistance to British OTs such as Montserrat (€34.06 million from 2008–2020), offering another tranche of financial and institutional support beyond the £400 million that was provided by the UK’s DFID between 1997 and 2015. Furthermore, the EU has played a significant economic role in many Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) through the allocation of various iterations of the European Development Fund (EDF). For isolated British OTs like the Pitcairn Islands and St Helena, these funds have made possible improvements to landing facilities for cruise ships to facilitate growth and future sustainability in the tourist sector, a vital source of income and economic security for these communities. The ninth and tenth iterations of the EDF provided the Cayman Islands with €7 million and the Turks and Caicos Islands with €6.25 million, to go towards reconstruction in the wake of severe weather events, as well as funding for disaster risk prevention.

 

REPRESENTATION OF THE OTS IN THE UK AND IN THE COMMONWEALTH AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL FORA;

 

  1. The UK Overseas Territories Association (UKOTA) was formed in November 1994 by the Governments of the UK’s Overseas Territories who have a permanent population in the UK to represent the ‘collective view’ of the OTs, and to promote the interests of the OTs within the UK. Membership is equal, regardless of the size, or the GDP of any Territory. It is noteworthy that Anguilla has elected not to renew its membership in 2017-18 and therefore no longer appears as an active member on the UKOTA website.
  2. There is a growing sense that the UK’s OTs – whose fortunes and futures have long been treated collectively by HMG, the FCO and organisations such as UKOTA – are increasingly discontent with the idea of a singular ‘UK Overseas Territories Family’. This has been brought into striking focus due to the varied implications of Brexit that have, for example, led Gibraltar to posit a ‘great continuation bill’ and a relationship with the EU separate from the UK. There is a growing suggestion that representatives of the OTs are questioning this group identity and the long term applicability of the ‘Overseas Territories’ as a collective.
  3. Lobby groups, such as the ‘Friends of the British Overseas Territories’ promote the idea of integrating the OTs more closely (and, indeed, completely) within the UK and have gained public support from the prominent Gibraltarian, Albert Poggio, the former Representative of Gibraltar to the UK and Andrew Rosindell MP. Full integration with the UK (with corresponding representation in Westminster for example) is a constitutional arrangement that may find support from the Government of Gibraltar, but would likely be rejected within the Falkland Islands (where democratic self-governance and self-determination have become defining features of their national identity, and the basis for rejecting ongoing accusations from within Latin America of lingering colonial relations with the UK).
  4. Through the UK’s membership of the EU, the UK OTs are members of the Association of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union (OCTA). This forum gives its members (consisting of British, French and Dutch OTs, together with Greenland) an opportunity to discuss shared challenges facing OCTs, and has helped develop partnerships between multiple OCTs (in the Caribbean, for example) that share similar structural handicaps and development challenges.
  5. Gaining the formal recognition of supranational organisations like the EU is fundamental for British OTs more broadly, and particularly those subject to sovereignty disputes, such as Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands. Their collective association with the EU assures British OTs consistent institutional support from an organisation whose individual member states (including Spain and Italy) have not always been supportive of their sovereignty claims. For small OTs with limited diplomatic budgets and capacities, support from this bloc cuts down on the financial costs and diplomatic labour required to develop and sustain bilateral support.
  6. For Gibraltar the EU has emerged as a kind of ‘guarantor’ power, providing an additional level of institutional legitimacy and security, and as a source of reassurance for its political and diplomatic consistency towards the territory. The EU has, for example, previously deployed inspectors to uphold freedom of movement policy along the Spanish–Gibraltar border.

 

ASSETS AND LIABILITIES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ECOLOGICAL RICHNESS AND THE EFFECTS OF EXTREME WEATHER, AND NATURAL RESOURCES SUCH AS MINERALS AND FISH).

 

  1. As well as economic assets and potentially-exploitable natural resources, the OTs are repositories of rich biodiversity and cultural heritage, which will require ongoing management, preservation and protection regimes, particularly (although not exclusively) given the risks of climate change.
  2. While the UK government’s ‘Blue Belt’ programme commits £20 million (2016-20) to enhance the marine protection of over 4 million sq. kilometres of marine environment around selected UK OTs, there are concerns about the UK’s broader commitment to plugging the loss of EU funds. Substantial EU funding has been allocated to facilitate sustainable development, strengthen environmental conservation and the preservation of biodiversity in various British OTs. For example, funding for environmental initiatives in the OTs has been provided through the EU’s ‘BEST’ and B4Life programmes and has supported sea bird conservation and ecosystem risk assessments in the Falkland Islands and the Caribbean territories. There is ongoing uncertainty at the ‘lack of detail’ pertaining to how such schemes will be financed into the future, and HMG are currently being urged to clearly articulate their funding plans by conservation representatives across the UK’s OTs.

 

September 2018