{"id":120764,"date":"2021-11-30T18:37:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T01:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=120764"},"modified":"2021-11-30T18:37:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T01:37:41","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-27-b4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/11\/30\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-27-b4\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 27 B4"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Tamil\nSeparatist Movement says it is entitled to self determination and has the right\nto set up a separate state. The Tamil Separatist Movement cites\nthe often repeated UN statement which says All peoples have the right to\nself-determination and by virtue of that right to freely determine their\npolitical status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development\u201d.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netherlands said in an opinion to the\nInternational Court of Justice, given in 2018 that self-determination was   a part of International law as a right.  Netherlands pointed out that in 1970 UN\nGeneral Assembly said that the right of self-determination was a fundamental\nprinciple of contemporary international law binding on all States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately for\nthe Tamil Separatist Movement, the UN decided that in the first instance only\ncountries under colonial rule have this right to self determination.  UN said in 1952 that member states of the UN\nmust recognize and promote the right of self-determination of peoples of\nNon-Self-Governing and Trust Territories who are under them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was followed\nby General Assembly Resolution 1514(XV) of December 1960, Declaration on the\nGranting of Independence to Colonial countries and Peoples.\u201d The Resolution was\nadopted with eighty-nine Member States voting in favor, no vote against, and\nnine abstentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Resolution\nsaid that it was necessary to bring colonialism to a speedy end. Countries\nunder colonial occupation were entitled to obtain independence.  However, the    Resolution also said that there must be no\nattempt at partial or total disruption of the national unity and territorial\nintegrity of a [sovereign state.] United\nNations General Assembly Resolution 1654 of 27 November 1961 reaffirmed\nthe 1960 resolution. Thus scuppering plans of the Tamil Separatist Movement to\ncreate a breakaway Eelam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nwas followed by Resolution 26\/25 (XXV) of 1970, Declaration on\nPrinciples of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation\namong States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations . This\nResolution also said that states must bring an end to colonialism. The\nestablishment of a sovereign and independent State, [or any other state] freely\ndetermined by a people, constituted self determination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the 1970 \nResolution  also declared Nothing\nin the foregoing paragraphs shall be construed as authorizing or encouraging\nany action which would dis\u00admember or impair, totally or in part, the\nterritorial in\u00adtegrity or political unity of sovereign and independent States\nconducting themselves in compliance with the principle of equal rights and\nself-determination of peoples and  possessed\nof a government representing the whole people belonging to the territory\nwithout distinction as to race, creed or color\u201d. So no Eelam there either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018 it\nwas suggested that once the inhabitants of a colonial territory got their\nindependence or whatever, that territory was no longer a colony.  Eventually, once all the colonies got\nindependence, self-determination of colonies will come to a natural end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamil\nSeparatist Movement was also unable to get any relief from the UN Declaration\non Minorities. Asbjorn Eide, Special\nRapporteur,   stated in 1998 ‘Insofar as\nthe UN Committee on Protection of Minority Rights is concerned, it would not recognize\nthe right of Tamils in Sri Lanka for self determination <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a strong\nbody of legal opinion which rejects claims to self determination based on ethno\nnationalist grounds alone, said HL de Silva. Judge Rosalyn Higgins of ICJ\nobserved that the word \u2018Peoples\u2019 means all the people in the territory. This\nmeans that minorities do not have the right of self-determination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In the Helsinki declaration of 1975, adopted\nby 35 states constituting the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe\n(CSCE) national minorities were excluded from the scope of self determination.\nRight was given only to entire populations of sovereign states, said HL de\nSilva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But self determination\ndid not disappear. It got a new lease of life. When World War II ended, the\nruling powers created new states, where none had existed before. These new\nstates contained groups which had no prior connection with each other. These\ngroups started to kick. Breakaway disputes arose and a new call for self determination\narose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International\nCourt of Justice (ICJ) was asked to intervene. ICJ found that the right to\nself-determination was an unsettled issue in international law. There were many differing opinions. ICJ therefore\nsought opinions from UN Member countries on the matter. Netherlands (2018) said\nthat decolonization was only one aspect of the right<\/em> of self determination. \nThe right of self determination extended beyond decolonization and foreign\noccupation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netherlands\npointed out that the right of self-determination has been included in several\ninternational instruments that did not deal with decolonization or foreign\noccupation. It  was included in Articles\n1 of the 1966 Covenants, General Assembly Resolution
\n2625, the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights, 1993 Vienna
\nDeclaration and Programme of Action, and Part VIII of the Final Act of the\nConference on Security and Co-operation in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A common\nfeature of these instruments is that they speak of all peoples\u201d and not merely\nto \u2018colonial\u2019 or \u2018oppressed\u2019 peoples as the holders of the right of\nself-determination. This shows the universal and continuous character of the\nright of self-determination, said Netherlands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 But there is a reluctance to define \u2018people\u2019\nobserved analysts. States wanted it\nthat way, so that interpretation could change as political priorities changed, replied\n other analysts. But some criteria have\nevolved, otherwise, any group could self-identify as a “people\u201d and demand\nto secede, replied Netherlands. One\nsuch criteria is recognition by a competent international organization, said\nSerbia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netherlands pointed out to the International\nCourt of Justice that self-determination could be achieved through (a) the\ndissolution of a State, (b) the merger of one or more States, or (c) the\nsecession from a State.   A people may\ndecide to dissolve a State and create two or more States out of it, or allow a\ngroup to secede from that State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Court of Justice then looked at\nSecession. International law does not prohibit the secession of a territory\nfrom a sovereign State, ICJ observed and requested opinions on this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secession is a highly exceptional way of creating States, said Serbia. Consent from the\nsovereign State has been present in ail the states that arose through\nsecession.International law does not authorize secession without the sovereign\nState’s consent, agreed Netherlands. Partition of the colonial territory was\nonly permitted if that was the clear wish of the majority of all inhabitants of\nthe territory.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canadian Supreme Court  said that even if the people of Quebec vote\nYes to separation at a referendum they still have to negotiate with the people\nthey are going to separate from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts observed that\nonce independent states are formed and recognized by the international\ncommunity, it is very difficult to form breakaway – states. There has to be a very strong justification,  such as a long history of separate rule,\nproof  of  recognition as a separate\ncountry, and proof that it was yoked  to another\ncountry against  its wishes.  Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Tamil Separatist Movement says it is entitled to self determination and has the right to set up a separate state. The Tamil Separatist Movement cites the often repeated UN statement which says All peoples have the right to self-determination and by virtue of that right to freely determine their political status and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}