Argentina1
Declaration:
On the occasion of its ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Argentine Government recalls that on 3 October 1983 the Argentine Republic rejected the extension of the application of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia Islands and South Sandwich Islands.
The Argentine Government recalls that the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia Islands and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas are an integral part of the Argentine national territory and, being illegally occupied by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, are the subject of a sovereignty dispute between the two countries which is recognized by the United Nations and other international organizations.
In this connection, the General Assembly of the United Nations has adopted resolutions 2065 (XX), 3160 (XXVIII), 31/49, 37/9, 38/12, 39/6, 40/21, 41/40, 42/19 and 43/25, in which the sovereignty dispute referred to as the “Question of the Malvinas Islands” is recognized and the Governments of the Argentine Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are urged to resume negotiations in order to find as soon as possible a peaceful and lasting solution to the dispute. Concurrently, the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United Nations has repeatedly affirmed this view. Also, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States adopted, on 24 June 2010, a new pronouncement, in similar terms, on the question.
In ratifying the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Argentine Republic does so on the understanding that the system of communications provided for under that instrument does not apply to the right of peoples to self-determination in any context related to sovereignty disputes.