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Self-determination[1] 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.[2][3]
Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law, binding, as such, on the United Nations as an authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms.[4][5] The principle does not state how the decision is to be made, nor what the outcome should be (whether independence, federation, protection, some form of autonomy or full assimilation),[6] and the right of self-determination does not necessarily include a right to an independent state for every ethnic group within a former colonial territory. Further, no right to secession is recognized under international law.[7][8]
The concept emerged with the rise of nationalism in the 19th century and came into prominent use in the 1860s, spreading rapidly thereafter.[9] During and after World War I, the principle was encouraged by both Soviet Premier Vladimir Lenin and United States President Woodrow Wilson.[9] Having announced his Fourteen Points on 8 January 1918, on 11 February 1918 Wilson stated: "National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. 'Self determination' is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action."[10] During World War II, the principle was included in the Atlantic Charter, jointly declared on 14 August 1941 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, and Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who pledged The Eight Principal points of the Charter.[11] It was recognized as an international legal right after it was explicitly listed as a right in the UN Charter.[12]
Implementing the right to self-determination can be politically difficult, in part because there are multiple interpretations of what constitutes a people and which groups may legitimately claim the right to self-determination.[13] As World Court judge Ivor Jennings put it: "the people cannot decide until somebody decides who are the people".[14]
- ^ "Self determination (international law)". LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 2022-09-19.
- ^ Forsyth, Tim (2018). Encyclopedia of International Development. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
"External" self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and "internal" self-determination refers to the right to have a representative government with effective participation in the political process...The right to self-determination was at first limited to colonial territories' right to external self-determination. The right was made secondary to territorial integrity and national unity, effective "locking" colonial boundaries. In 1970, the right to self-determination was expanded to apply beyond colonial situations. This declaration linked self-determination's internal and external aspects by suggesting that a racial or religious group denied equal participation in the political process would be entitled to external self-determination, voiding the principle that territorial integrity or national unity should not be threatened in extreme cases. The Vienna Declaration (1993) broaded this argument to include ethnic groups denied effective political participation. While representation and effective participation is usually enough to satisfy a people's right to self-determination, a people may have the right to external self-determination when those conditions are not met.
- ^ Alexander, Yonah, and Friedlander, Robert A. Self-determination: National, Regional, And Global Dimensions. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2019.
- ^ See: United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 in Wikisource states
- ^ McWhinney, Edward (2007). Self-Determination of Peoples and Plural-Ethnic States in Contemporary International Law: Failed States, Nation-Building and the Alternative, Federal Option. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 8. ISBN 978-9004158351.
- ^ Griffiths, Martin, ed. (2013). Encyclopedia of International Relations and Global Politics. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
Since the end of decolonization, it has become clear that the diplomatic compromises that facilitated the transfer of political authority during that era are now obsolete. Today, the principle of self-determination lacks both definition and applicability. Saving it from a complete descent into incoherence will require a renewal of the links between autonomy, democracy, human rights and the right to self-determination. Central to cultivating this renewal should be the adoption of a more liberal and expansive interpretation of the meaning of self-determination. Self-determination does not have to mean irredentism, secession and the violent renegotiation of territorial frontiers. The promotion of minority rights, devolution, federalism and greater acknowledgement of the legitimacy of cultural self-expression are all expressions of self-determination.
- ^ "Legal Aspects of Self-Determination". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Self-Determination. Princeton University.
- ^ Foweraker, Joe; Clarke, Paul Barry, eds. (2003). Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought. United Kingdom: Taylor&Francis. p. 655.
At present, international law is ambiguous regarding the right to secede. Some documents assert that self-determination is a fundamental right, but in practice the United Nations and other international organisations have very rarely recognized breakaway states, and the trend at the turn of the millennium seems to be toward increasing the opposition to separatism, largely as a result of the grave effects observable in most cases where it has been attempted. One ICJ judge, Rosalyn Higgins, has writter that there is no legal right of secession where there is representative government. However, some other experts disagree, adding that self-determination is justifiable where there is representative government but the minority nevertheless faces severe human rights violations.
- ^ a b Jörg Fisch (9 December 2015). A History of the Self-Determination of Peoples: The Domestication of an Illusion. Cambridge University Press. p. 118. ISBN 978-1-107-03796-0.
- ^ "President Wilson's Address to Congress, Analyzing German and Austrian Peace Utterances (Delivered to Congress in Joint Session on February 11, 1918)". gwpda.org. February 11, 1918. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
- ^ See: Clause 3 of the Atlantic Charter reads: "Third, they respect the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them" then became one of the eight cardinal principal points of the Charter all people had a right to self-determination.
- ^ Daniel, Thürer; Thomas, Burri (2008). "Self-Determination". Oxford Public International Law. doi:10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/e873. ISBN 978-0-19-923169-0.
- ^ Betty Miller Unterberger, "Self-Determination", Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 2002.
- ^ Mayall, James (2013). "International Society, State Sovereignty, and National Self-Determination". In Breuilly, John (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 542. ISBN 978-0-19-876820-3.