Is Their a Right to Self-Determination in the Case of Serious Human Rights Violations?
What are the reasons that Slovenia successfully exercised its external right to self-determination and reached independence and Kashmir has not been successful in its claims? It is argued that issues arising from dissolution of states, creation of new states and recognition require a thorough understanding of the relevant facts. Assessment of facts is much easier from a historical distance. Nobody questions today the wisdom of recognizing the dissolution of the Spanish colonial empire in Latin America, or the independence of Greece from the Ottoman rule. Disregard for historical context of facts may lead to serious mistakes. Legal analysts and, above all, policy makers should be aware of that. It is now accepted that peoples in colonial situations have a right to self-determination. Uniform state practice, numerous resolutions, and the position taken by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinions in the Namibia case and the Western Sahara case confirm the above. But the
