Worksheet 6b

Question 1

What is the concept of self determination?

Answer 1

The right of people to determine its own political determination

Question 2

What are the two ways self determination can be achieved?

Answer 2

Internal self-determination
External self-determination

Question 3

Differentiate between internal and external self-determination

Answer 3

Internal: gives people the right to participate in the conduct of their common affairs within a state and to pursue economic, social and cultural and development without outside interference
External: gives people the right to secede from existing state auto to create a new state or to be incorporated into or to associate with another state

Question 4

What does external self-determinations?

Answer 4

Challenges the national unity and territorial integrity of a state and when people are using force to exercise their right, poses a threat to international peace and security

Question 5

What are the two periods of the evolution of the principle of self-determination?

Answer 5

1. Period up to the end of world war 2 during which time self determination was regarded as a political principle
2. Period after world war 2 when self determination became a legal principle

Question 6

What statute constitutes the foundation in international law of the right to self determine in the decolonization period?

Answer 6

1960 resolution on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples (unga resolution 1594 [XV] )

Question 7

What does UNGA resolution call for in the decolonization period?

Answer 7

The immediate emancipation of colonial people “without any condition or reservation in order to allow them to enjoy full independence

Question 8

Which specific UNGA resolution provides the right to self determination?

Answer 8

Resolution 1541 (xv)

Question 9

According to the UNGA what are the three ways in which self determination?

Answer 9

1. May decide to constitute themselves as a sovereign independent state
2. They may decide to associate freely as an independent state
3. They may integrate with an independent state already in existence

Question 10

What principle imposes a limitation on the exercise of the right of self determination by colonial people?

Answer 10

Uti possidetis because colonial borders are to be maintained even though they are artificially drawn by colonial powers without any consideration of the ethnic or historical tradition of the people or peoples living in that area

Question 11

Which case confirmed the limitation imposed by uti possidetis?

Answer 11

Burkina Faso versus the Republic of Mali concerning the frontier dispute

Question 12

When were people living under racist regimes and foreign domination given the right to self determine beyond the context of colonization?

Answer 12

At the end of the Cold War, before this it was only rare occurrences such as apartheids in South Africa and people living in occupied territory such as Palestinians

Question 13

Is self determination a human right?

Answer 13

According to IL, yes but where persons wish to withdraw from a state which they form part of, the International community has been extremely reluctant to recognize or support their right

Question 14

What did self determination look like in the post-cold war era?

Answer 14

When communism collapsed, the USSR and Yugoslavia ceased to east and were replaced by new states created on the territory of the old states

Question 15

What is an exception to the uti possidetis?

Answer 15

Kosovo

Question 16

What does International law say about self determination in the following scenarios?
- dissolution of a state
- peoples
- minorities
- indigenous peoples

Answer 16

1. IL recognizes the right to dissolve a state in a peaceful way and to create new states on the territory of the forms state - agreement of all parties concerned is at the center of this principle
2. Apart from colonies peoples, IL is unclear as to who is entitled to reserve the right to self determination
3. IL refuses to grant minority groups living within a state a right to succession but ensures their rights as minorities are respected

Question 17

What does International law say about self determination in the following scenarios?
- indigenous peoples

Answer 17

4. The most entitled to be considered as peoples since they have been colonized the longest but IL does not consider indigenous people as colonial people and have only been granted the right to internal self determination

Question 18

What statute declared the right of internal self determination for indigenous people?

Answer 18

The 2007 declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples