Everything about Self-determination totally explained
Self-determination is defined as free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion, and especially as the freedom of the people of a given
territory to determine their own political status or
independence from their current state. The latter is a complex concept with conflicting definitions and legal criteria for determining which groups may legitimately claim the right to self-determination.
History
Beginnings
Just as
colonisation and
colonialism have been practiced throughout human history, political self-determination has been cherished by people through history, the ancient
Mesopotamian and later
Greek city-states being early examples.
During the early 1800s most of the nations of
South America achieved
independence from Spain. The American public, organized groups and even Congressional resolutions, often supported such movements, especially the
Greek War of Independence (1821-29) and the
demands of Hungarian revolutionaries in 1848. However, such support never became official government policy. After the
American Civil War the
United States government opposed self-determination for the West Indian islands of
St. Thomas and
St. John in 1868, the
Hawaiin Islands in 1868. By the conclusion of the
Spanish-American War in 1899 the United States supported its annexation without the consent of the peoples the former Spanish colonies of
Guam,
Puerto Rico and the
Philippines; it retained “quasi-suzerainty” over Cuba.) The 1918
Constitution of the Soviet Union acknowledged the the right of
secession for its constituent
republics.
During the 1920s and 1930s there were some successful movements for self-determination in the beginnings of the process of
decolonization. In the
Statute of Westminster the
Great Britain granted independence to
Canada,
New Zealand,
Newfoundland, the
Irish Free State, the Commonwealth of
Australia, and the
Union of South Africa after the
British parliament declared itself as incapable of passing laws over them without their consent.
Egypt,
Aghanistan and
Iraq also achieved
independence from Britain and
Lebanon from
France. Other efforts were unsuccessful, like the
Indian independence movement. And
Italy,
Japan and
Germany all initiated new efforts to bring new territories under their control, leading to
World War II.
The UN Charter
In 1941
Allies of World War II signed the
Atlantic Charter and accepted the principle of self-determination. In January 1942 twenty-six nations signed the
Declaration by United Nations, which accepted those principles. The ratification of the
United Nations Charter in 1945 at then end of World War II placed the right of self-determination into the framework of international law and diplomacy.
- Chapter 1, Article 1, part 2 states that purpose of the UN Charter is: “To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.”
- Article 1 in both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Both read: “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
- The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 15 states that everyone has the right to a nationality and that no one should be arbitrarily deprived of a nationality or denied the right to change nationality.
However, the charter and other resolutions didn't insist on full independence as the best way of obtaining
self-government, nor did they include an enforcement mechanism. Moreover, nations were recognized by the legal doctrine of
uti possidetis juris, meaning that old administrative boundaries would become international
boundaries upon independence, even if they'd little relevance to linguistic, ethnic, and cultural boundaries. Never the less, justified by the language of self-determination, between 1946 and 1960, the people of thirty-seven new nations freed themselves from colonial status in
Asia,
Africa, and the
Middle East. The territoriality issue inevitably would lead to more conflicts and independence movements within many nations and challenges to the assumption that
territorial integrity is as important as self-determination. The international reaction to these new movements has been uneven and often dictated more by politics than principle. The year 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration failed to deal with these new demands, mentioning only “the right to self-determination of peoples which remain under colonial domination and foreign occupation.”
In an issue of
Macquerie University Law Journal Associate professor Aleksandar Pavkovic and Senior Lecturer Peter Radan outlined current legal and political issues in self-determination. These include:
Defining “peoples”
There isn't yet a recognized legal definition of “peoples” in international law. Vita Gudeleviciute of
Vytautas Magnus University Law School, reviewing international law and UN resolutions, finds in cases of non-self-governing peoples (colonized and/or indigeneous) and foreign military occupation “a people” is the entire population of the occupied territorial unit, no matter their other differences. In cases where people lack representation by a state’s government, the unrepresented become a separate people Present international law doesn't recognize ethnic and other minorities as separate peoples.
Constitutional law
Most sovereign states don't recognize the right to self-determination through secession in their constitutions. Many expressly forbid it. However, there are several existing models of self-determination through greater autonomy and through secession.
In liberal constitutional democracies the principle of
majority rule has dictated whether a minority can secede. In the United States
Abraham Lincoln acknowledged that secession through constitutional amendment. The
Supreme Court in
Texas v White, held secession could occur “through consent of the States.” The
British Parliament in 1933 held that
Western Australia only could secede from Australia upon vote of a majority of the country as a whole; the previous two-thirds majority vote for secession via referendum in Western Australia was insufficient. before the final document underwent the unsuccessful ratification process in 2005.
International law
Given the hundreds of minority groups seeking greater autonomy and even full secession into a new state, there's need for a new understanding of the right to self-determination that applies to minority national groups and indigenous populations. At the very least this would encourage states to these groups more internal self-determination to deter secessionist demands.
Taiwan
Taiwan is the focus of a self-determination dispute in the
East Asia region. The government of the
People's Republic of China claims the entirety of Taiwan as its territory. However, Taiwanese independence advocates argue that there's no legal claim to Taiwan, as no legally binding treaty ever transferred sovereignty to China following World War II, an assertion that both the
People's Republic of China and the
Republic of China disagree with. At the same time, the
de facto government of Taiwan, the
Republic of China still hasn't formally withdrawn its claims to the mainland and several other areas. In practice, however, this claim essentially died off through the 1990s and is no longer pressed by Taiwan's elected government.
Turkish Cypriots
Since 1974,
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a state recognized by
Turkey only, has been governing the northern part of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The
Turkish Cypriot community claimed a right of self-determination in ending their partnership with the
Greek Cypriots in the
Republic of Cyprus.
United States
The colonization of the North American continent and its
Native American population has been the source of legal battles since the early 1800s. The westward push of European-American settlers brought about significant changes to Native American cultures, and those that remained were resettled to separate tracts of land (
reservations). These had been given a certain degree of
autonomy, within the United States federal government, which allows for their exclusion from various national legal restrictions.
Another group of people affected by the westward expansion of the European-Americans were Mexicans and their present descendants the Chicanos. Mostly of Native American and
Mestizo descent, these people lay claim to the "stolen" territories of the U.S. Southwest, most notably California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. These movements name this area "Aztlan" after the legendary homeland of the Mexica (Aztec), or refer to it as "Occupied Mexico." They hold that the U.S.-Mexico Border is an apartheid border and that recent migrants from Mexico and Latin America are only following ancient migratory patterns of their Native American ancestors. In fact Mexico was defeated militarily by the U.S in the Mexican-American War and this territory was ceded to the U.S. under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
There is an active
Hawaiian sovereignty movement which aims at rectifying the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in the late 19th century which resulted in the incorporation of
Hawai'i into the United States. They hold that self-determination was never granted to native Hawaiians after the overthrow, and thus a large measure of autonomy or independence should be granted to Hawaii. Opponents allege that this would violate the self-determination rights of the non-Hawaiian majority living in Hawaii now.
Since 1972, the U.N. Decolonization Committee has called for
Puerto Rico's decolonization and for the U.S. to recognize the island's right to self-determination and independence. Most recently, the Decolonization Subcommittee called for the
United Nations General Assembly to review the political status of Puerto Rico, a power reserved by the 1953 Resolution. Furthermore, the
Young Lords, a
Puerto Rican internationalist group founded in
Lincoln Park, Chicago, in 1968, called not only for independence for Puerto Rico but also for neighborhood empowerment within cities in the continental United States, which they characterized as self-determination in every
barrio or neighborhood.
Further Information
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