The Gibraltar Constitution Order 2006 was taken to a referendum in

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

on 30 November 2006. A coalition of groups opposing the proposal held that a majority of 60% should be required to give effect to a new Constitution, quoting other instances, but the political parties held that the result should be decided by a simple majority in favour of the new constitution. The constitution was approved by 60% of the votes anyway. It was given effect by an

Order in Council An Order in Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom, this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' ...

on 14 December 2006 and it came into force on 2 January 2007. According to the British government, it aimed to provide a modern and mature relationship that is not based on

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

between

and the United Kingdom.

Origin

In 1999, the Government of the United Kingdom invited

British Dependent Territories The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

to provide proposals for constitutional reform. A cross-party committee of the Gibraltar House of Assembly was set up to consult with interested parties and in January 2002 produced a report, which was subsequently debated and negotiated with the United Kingdom. The proposals for the reform were accepted by the British

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 ...

in March 2006 and then were unanimously approved in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

in October.

Publication procedure

Once promulgated by the

Queen-in-Council The King-in-Council or the Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it refers to the monarch exercising executive authority, usually in the form of app ...

, the Constitution Order was published as a set of documents: # The Despatch, the letter under cover of which the Foreign Secretary sent the Constitution order to the

Governor of Gibraltar The governor of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territories, British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of ...

. # The Order in Council, which contained the preamble as main content. It also included several annexes. # The Annexes to the Order in Council. Annex No 1 is the text of the Constitution itself; Annex No 2 contains the transitional and other provisions.

The proposed constitution had been negotiated with the British Government by a delegation representing Gibraltar, comprising the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

, the Opposition and others. The text of the proposed new Constitution had been welcomed by the House of Assembly in a motion passed unanimously with the support of both sides of the House. Among changes introduced by the new constitution were: * Renaming the House of Assembly to the

Gibraltar Parliament The Gibraltar Parliament is the legislature of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Between 1969 and 2006, it was called the Gibraltar House of Assembly. Functions The House of Assembly, set up under the 1969 constitution, was a unic ...

. * Renaming "Members of the House of Assembly" to "Members of Parliament" (MPs). * Removal of the two remaining un-elected members of the House of Assembly. * Increasing the number of elected representatives from 15 to 17, with the parliament able to legislate to increase this number. * Decreasing the Governor's powers, and transferring some of these to elected officials. * Modernization of the relationship between Gibraltar and the UK, without affecting the issue of

sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

. * A bill of "fundamental rights and freedoms" enshrined in the constitution.

Referendum

A referendum on the proposed new constitution order was held on 30 November 2006. The motion proposed and approved was: The possible answers were "Yes" and "No".

Response

On colonialism and modernisation of political institutions

Answering the complaints of Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos,

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretar ...

stated: In the foreword of an explanatory leaflet issued by the Government of Gibraltar for the proposed new constitution, Chief Minister Peter Caruana said that he: He further added: Caruana also stated:

On independence

At the same time, the UK government, while fully supporting the right of

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

for Gibraltarians, excluded the possibility of independence for Gibraltar, referring to the

Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaty, peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vac ...

: However, the UK government acknowledged that Gibraltar "does not share the view that this constraint exists and that their acceptance of this Constitution is on that basis".

Criticisms

In spite of the unanimous support from all the political parties represented in the House of Assembly, there was a significant "No" movement. The reasons were diverse, but mainly related to two aspects: while some electors could have felt that the commitment to retaining British sovereignty was not sufficiently secure, other could have believed that the new constitution were not advanced enough in allowing the exercise of the right to self-determination. The minority rights pressure group Equality Rights GGR, have called it "gravely deficient" and a "missed opportunity", for failing to fully incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights. The Self Determination for Gibraltar Group also criticised the constitution and campaigned for a No vote in the constitutional referendum. They said in a press release that the new constitution "is not the act of self-determination which will decolonise us" and that it "is as colonial as its 1964 and 1969 predecessors." Joe Bossano, Leader of the Opposition, criticised the failure to phrase the preamble in a way that supported the maximum possible level of self-government.

Result

Turnout was 60.4%, the lowest at a general election or referendum for 25 years. This was much lower than the 87.9% achieved for the 2002 referendum on shared sovereignty but comparable to the 58% for the election for the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

.European Parliament Elections 2004
60.24% of votes cast were for the order, 37.75% of votes were against.

References

External links

Constitution of Gibraltar on Gibraltar.gov.gi
Draft government legislation replacing references to "House of Assembly" with "Gibraltar Parliament"
{{Gibraltar topics 2006 elections in Gibraltar 2006 in British law 2006 referendums Constitutions of country subdivisions Orders in Council Referendums in Gibraltar November 2006 in Europe