After 14 years of talks on the issue of sovereignty for the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), the UN’s decolonization committee (the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples) has called for another round of concrete negotiations. The Falkand Islands, which lie off the coast of Argentina, were invaded and occupied by the British in 1833. A war over control of the islands was fought in 1982 between the UK and Argentina, and ended in a swift British victory. Falkland Island officials are frustrated by both British and Argentinean claims to the islands, and insist that they will not accept a simple transferal from British to Argentinean rule. There is hope that with the new and seemingly more progressive government in Argentina, new settlements can be reached to forward the goals of self-determination. British officials, however, have dismissed the commission’s call, saying they are not interested in any discussion of self-determination.
