Is_Secession_Permitted_Under_the_International_Law_

Introduction Since evolution of human kind, people only seek for the best, and wants to achieve more and more. They seek for more liberty and more rights and always do everything what is in their hand, for their own wellbeing. Knowing fundamentally that they have been born free, and have the right to exercise that freedom, human kind cannot endure humiliation, abidance, or slavery. And as such people started to live in different forms of groups starting from the ancient world. The matriarchal system of ruling found people living in big groups, and through its development and change of system, people started to live in more organized form. Creation of kingdoms, monarchies, and lately, around 14 century, modern states, people wanted to be complete free, govern themselves, and have the right of representation. And as time passed, kingdoms disappeared, monarchs lost their power, but states started to become stronger and stronger by gaining more power, more ability to act, and more potential of surviving. They, states, build strong armies, create great economical channels, and also opened and maintained a lot of international relations with other states, or powers. Their political system changed from time to time, and as it happened people started to get upset, not satisfied, and more over they felt indented and started to react. Great powers created their colonies, other big states invaded other land, and some other states acquired proprietorship from different agreements and treaties. Such treaties include Ambassadors Conference of 1913 in London, where Albanian lands were divided in several portions and were given to neighboring countries, and Vienna Conference of 1919, after World War I. However, people dissatisfaction lead to another epochal age. The self determination period where people could decide whether or not they wanted to be part of one or the other state. Disliking the governing system, frustration with heads of state, and political, social, and economical views made people seek new options of fulfilling their needs, and satisfy the majority of them. Therefore, they started to secede from the original or main state and create new states. Based on the Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties (1978), article 2, paragraph b, succession of states means the replacement of one State by another in responsibility for the international relations of the territory . Thus, they created newly independent states which mean a successor State the territory of which immediately before the date of the succession of States was a dependent territory for the international relations of which the Predecessor State was responsible . But the question that has been raised, and still has no definitive answer, is whether states have right to secede, and whether the secession is permitted under the international law' To define, illustrate, and discus more this issue, I am going to provide you with some examples of modern times, where secessions happened, and see if it was lawfully or not, and whether states has taken the necessary steps to become independent, sovereign by seceding by the original state. In order to have a clear view whether it is allowed or not we will start with determining a key functions, equal rights and self-determination, which lead us to the final outcome, succession. Based on the Declaration on the Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among states in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations (1970), the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples enshrined in the Charter, says that all people have the right freely to determine, without external interference, their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development, and every State has the duty to respect this right in accordance with the provisions of the Charter . Taking into account this, we can continue saying that entitlement to self-determination is broad and it varies from a case to another. However, international law narrows down the potential groups of people who are entitled to concept of self-determination. People belonging to colonial dominations, foreign occupations, and racist government are three basic elementary groups who are subject to self-determination based on the international law. There are plenty of cases which has been seceded unilaterally from original states and created newly independent states. Cases such as Quebec secession from Canada, East Timor secession from Indonesia, Lithuania secession from Soviet Union (and Soviet Union in that case collapsed), and Croatia and Slovenia secession from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - SFRJ (also here after this action the SFRJ collapsed), are just some of the enormous cases happening all around the world. However, there is a small problem that is encountered lately, especially with the case of Republic of Kosova, and that is whether the self-determination should be subject to people belonging to different ethnic groups, since there are too much ethnic groups. Therefore, in the case, example of Quebec unilateral secession from Canada, provided below you will have a clearer picture whether or not these groups have the right to self-determination and if the succession is permitted under the international law. Conclusion As we can see self-determination and secession pose a major challenge not even to international law but also to lawyers, since it encounters a lot of difficulties in defending, and pursuing self-determination and secession cases. Because secession neither is permitted or allowed, it depends from lawyers, and us how we will pursue the “peoples” wish to represent themselves, have their rights, and govern themselves by the right of self-determination and creating their own state by all means, regulations, rules, and laws under the international law.   Work Cited Evans, Malcolm D. International Law Documents. 8th ed. New York: Oxford, 1991. Quebec Secession Case, File No. 25506, February 1998 "Self-determination and secession under international law." Self-determination and secession under international law. 22 June 2001. 18 Feb. 2009 . Encyclopedia, Stamford. "Secession." 7 Feb. 2003. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 19 Feb. 2009 .