International Law And The Right Of Self-Determination

9 Pages 2278 Words

Throughout the years since the second world war, there has been a need to determine what conditions would legitimize a group of people’s right to control their own governance. International law provides a vague definition of self-determination and an even vaguer description for the conditions that justify it. I will discuss the particular importance of this principle, its evolution and several different interpretations of the laws of self-determination. I will also reference specific cases to show how the ICJ deals with the claims based upon this principle.
The right of self-determination is of particular importance because its realization is an essential condition for the effective guarantee and respect of individual and minority rights. History has proven that the realization and respect for the right of self-determination of peoples contributes to the establishment of friendly relations and cooperation between states. Considering the importance of the self-determination principle, it is necessary to explore the beginnings of the concept and its development through the decolonization period and outside of the colonial context.
Before 1945 there was little clout given to the idea that people living within a territory of a state had a right to determine the political and legal status of that territory. This right was mentioned by a few treaties and applied only to specific territories (Malanczuk p. 326). The principle of self-determination emerged in the nineteenth century but it achieved significant prominence with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s famous Fourteen Points plan for peace. The principle is generally associated with the decolonization process that took place after the propagation of the United Nations Charter of 1945 (Parker). The intention of the decolonization process was to restore sovereignty to the people and give them full control of internal and external affairs, with a seat in the UN and all the other...