Self-determination national

I use the perspective on collective agency I discussed in the previous chapter to define nations as collective agents organized around self-determination. Nations are groups whose members share and identify with a particular kind of political culture, or a set of beliefs and attitudes concerning politics. A group of people is a... 

Finland resembles several other small countries on the European periphery that only emerged as independent nations in the early 20th century. In common with Ireland, Norway, Estonia and the former Czechoslovakia, for example, Finland detached itself from a large empire and gained its political sovereignty, cultural autonomy and the freedom of economic self-determination. 

The UN had adopted a number of declarations and resolutions regarding self-determination and national liberation movements. See further Schwebel 1974. 

Paulus A, Vashakmadze M (2009) Asymmetriceil war and the notion of armed conflict—a tentative conceptualisation. Int Rev Red Cross 91 95-125 Pomerance M (1982) Self-determination in law and practice the new doctrine of the United Nations. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague... 

In December, at the initiative of the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the UN, in cooperation with the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, some 25 diplomats and experts assembled to discuss accountability options for Syria. They opined, inter alia, that the ICC remained the preferred option, while there was no expectation that it will succeed in the near future and that national trials would be the best way to ensure accountability. They also proposed the setting up of a hybrid court, which could involve international, Arab judges, prosecutors, and lawyers alongside Syrians. At the time of publication, the conflict was still ongoing. 

The powerful force of nationalism or ethnic entrepreneurship alone does not explain the explosive nature of self-determination claims. At the structural level, the very doctrine of self-determination contributes to the fact that, traditionally, few existing or new conflicts were addressed. Instead, such conflicts have often seemed beyond resolution. For the doctrine of self-determination... 

A. Cristescu, The Right to Self-determination, Historical and Current Development on the Basis of United Nations Instruments , E/Cn.4/sub.2/404/Rev.l, 1981, para. 173. 

The insistence on self-determination as a singularity is handsomely demonstrated by the following extract from a submission to the United Nations by Sri Lankad ... 

A more modern case is furnished by the new Ethiopian constitution that was adopted after internal opposition forces finally displaced the central government. Article 39 (5) of the new Constitution of 8 December 1994 declares with the greatest clarity, that Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession ." Paragraph 5 adds an unusual definition ... 

In the Philippines autonomy settlement, the autonomous unit is also constituted through a plebiscite, although no external self-determination is provided for. Final Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front of 2 September 1996, at http //www.intstudies. cam.ac.uk/centre/cps/documents philippines final.html, accessed 3 November 2008. 

The nations of Yugoslavia, proceeding from the right of every nation to self-determination, including the right to secession, on the basis of their will freely expressed in the common struggle of all nations and nationalities in the National Liberation War and Socialist Revolution, and in conformity with their historic aspirations, aware that further consolidation of their brotherhood and unity is in the common interest, have, together with the nationalities with which they live, united in a... 

This provision quite clearly assigned to all nations contained in the federation the right to self-determination, including expressly the right of secession. Each of the federal republics was seen as the political expression of the constituent nations. Hence, the republics had been assigned an express right to self-determination and secession, which was put to the test in 1991. 

It is also possible to envisage a form of implied constitutional self-determination status. This would occur where a distinct nation or people inhabit a clearly constitutionally defined territory. Where the central government consents to the holding of a referendum on the issue of secession, or where such provisions are made in the constitution in the absence of an express reference to self-determination, there is an expectation that such a referendum would be respected by the central authorities. An example is furnished with reference to Scotland. Even in the absence of a written UK constitution, it is nevertheless clear that referenda on independence can be called with the agreement and cooperation of the central authorities. Should the result favour independence, it is likely that the outcome would attract a significant degree of international legitimacy. 

K. Doehring, Self-determination , in B. Simma, ed.. The Charter of the United Nations A Commentary, Oxford Oxford University Press (1995), 66. 

Lovise Aalen, Ethnic Federalism and Self-determination for Nationalities in a Semi-authoritarian State The case of Ethiopia , 13 International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 2-3 (2006). 

Dorit Abramovitch, The Relationship in Ideology between Self-determination Movements, Nationalism and the Crime of Genocide The Dynamics of Conflict Escalation, MA Thesis on file at University of Essex (1993). 

Sara E. Allgood, United Nations Human Rights Entitlements the Right to Development Analyzed within the Application of the Right of Self-determination , Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law (2003). 

Willem Assies and A.J. Hoekema, Indigenous Peoples Experiences with Self-Government Proceedings of the Seminar on Arrangements for Self-determination by Indigenous Peoples within National States, 10 and 11 February 1994 , Eaw Faculty, University of Amsterdam (Gopenhagen IWGIA, 1994). 

M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Palestinians Rights of Self-determination and National Independence (Detroit Association of Arab-American University Graduates, 1978). 

Berch Berberoglu, The National Question Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, and Self-determination in the 20th Century (Philadelphia Temple University Press, 1995). 

Enrique Bernales B., The Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-determination (New York United Nations, 1992). 

Craig J. Calhoun, Why Nationalism Sovereignty, Self-determination and Identity in a World-System of States (Durham, NC Center for International Studies, Duke University, 1993). 

---