The Jurisprudence of the Right to Self-Determination Under International Law: Interrogating Reality of the Right?

Abstract

Self determination is a process by which a people determines its own statehood and forms its own government. 1 In most cases it is borne out of agitation of people who feel maltreated by the government or a set of indigenous people who want a State of theirs. Such group of persons cannot qualify as a state in the legal sense of it; not having a permanent population, defined territory, government and capacity to enter into relations with other states.2 Self-determination is a right recognized by Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights but hardly enforced by the Human Rights Committee and super powers that are always looked upon by the agitators for assistance in realizing this right. Applying the doctrinal methodology and the natural law theory, this work took a deep survey of the international community's attitute towards enforcement of the right and discovered that they view it as an internal and domestic affair of the affected State which does not require allied intervention; not even on the excuse of human rights violations and also found that there are no realistic benchmarks to achieving the said right,
it therefore made some useful recommendations that would serve as benchmark for planning for responses to demand for self-determination or assuaging such agitations.