Principle of Self-determination
Self-determination, as applied to a nation of people, is the principle that a people has the right to freely choose its own political status and to determine its own form of economic, cultural and social development.
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"Essentially, the right to self-determination is the right of a people to determine its own destiny." Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
The principle of self-determination does not dictate any particular implementation process or political outcome.
Recognized by the United Nations
The right to self-determination is recognized as a right of all peoples in the United Nations International Bill of Human Rights and of indigenous peoples in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the General Assembly in 2007. See United Nations Treaties and Declarations for more details.
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"All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development." Article 1, ICESCR treaty
The plain meaning of the term "all peoples" includes peoples under colonial or alien subjugation or domination, those under occupation, indigenous peoples and other communities who satisfy the criteria generally accepted for determining the existence of a people.
The ICESCR multilateral treaty, a component of the International Bill of Human Rights, was ratified by China in 2001. In addition to the right of self-determination, Article 1 of the treaty also recognizes the right of a people to manage and dispose of their own resources and places an obligation on those parties still responsible for administrating non-self governing and trust territories (colonies) to encourage and respect their self-determination.
The right to self-determination of peoples is also recognized in many other international and regional instruments, and by leading international jurists. For more information see Self-Determination in International Law.
Definition of A People
While there is no universally accepted definition of a "people" in international law, international bodies and scholars have developed criteria for identifying the holders of the right to self-determination. A generally accepted description was developed in 1989 by the UNESCO International Meeting of Experts on Further Study of the Concept of the Rights of Peoples. This description identifies a people as a group of individual human beings who enjoy some or all of the following common features:
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•a common historical tradition
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•racial or ethnic identity
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•cultural homogeneity
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•linguistic unity
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•religious or ideological affinity
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•territorial connection
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•common economic life
The UNESCO description further states that "the group as a whole must have the will to be identified as a people or the consciousness of being a people" and that the group may have institutions or other means of expressing its common characteristics and will for identity.
Thus, the notion of a “people” combines objective characteristics describing a group's common historical, ethnic, cultural, religious or other background, with the subjective component of a common awareness as a people.
For further discussion on the definition of "peoples" and the question of self-determination versus territorial integrity and constitutional laws, see the Wikipedia entry on self-determination.
The Right of the Tibetan People
Tibetans clearly meet both the objective and the subjective components of what constitutes a people. Tibetans are a distinct ethnic group with their own language, religion, culture and history that is distinct from that of the Chinese people.
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"Tibetans are a distinct racial or ethnic group. Their language, Tibetan, is a Tibeto-Burmese language distinct from the Indian and Chinese languages and dialects. Tibetans are bound by their religion (Tibetan Buddhism) which is inextricably linked to the people's cultural, social and historic development. The Tibetans have a unique culture, passed down and developed through many thousands of years of separate and distinct history as expressed in the development of Tibetan fine art, literature, architecture, dress, dance, drama, medicine and way of life. They have an identifiable territory, Tibet (referred to by most Tibetans as Cholkhagsum, the three regions of Tibet) geographically and geologically distinct from China." The Case Concerning Tibet, Tibet Justice Center
The Tibetan people's right to self-determination was explicitly recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in 1961 and 1965 Resolutions that called on China to respect this right.
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"The General Assembly ... solemnly renews its call for the cessation of practices which deprive the Tibetan people of their fundamental human rights and freedoms, including their right to self-determination." United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 1723 (XVI), 1961
In 1992, the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal examined testimonies and arguments and concluded that Tibetans met the UNESCO and other generally accepted legal criteria of a "people" and were therefore entitled to exercise the right to self-determination. The Conference of International Lawyers on Issues Relating to Self-Determination and Independence for Tibet in 1993 reached the same conclusion.
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"... from a legal point of view, Tibetans should be allowed, by virtue of their right to self-determination, to freely choose their future political status, including independence. This conclusion, in summary, is based on the following grounds: 1. Tibetans are a distinct people; 2. As a people, they have the rights to self-determination and 3. This right should trump China’s conflicting claim to territorial integrity because: (a) China, by repressing Tibet, has not conducted itself as the legitimate government of the Tibet people; and (b) China has not allowed Tibetans to freely select their political representatives." Options for Tibet’s Future Political Status: Self-Governance through An Autonomous Arrangement, Tibet Justice Center
Tibetans as an Indigenous People
While the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples does not explicitly define what is meant by indigenous peoples, it does specify that such indigenous communities exist throughout the world and are not confined to former victims of European colonization. A 1983 United Nations study of the problem of discrimination against indigenous populations defined indigenous peoples as follows:
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"Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, further develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity,as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems." UNESCO, Committee on Human Rights, 1983
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples offers a clear guide for the treatment of indigenous peoples with respect to internal self-determination including the demilitarization of indigenous lands and the right of indigenous peoples:
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•to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs,
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•to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies,
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•to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures,
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•to be consulted and prior consent through their own representative institutions before implementing state legislative and administrative measures.
While China claims there are no indigenous peoples in China, there can be little doubt that the Tibetan people do satisfy the criteria for being an indigenous people of territory claimed as China by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In addition to the Tibetans fulfilling generally accepted definitions of a "people", China’s own Sino-Tibetan Agreement of 1951 (the so called Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet) documents Tibet’s unique status.
Possible Implementations of Self-determination
The United Nations documents that codify the principle of self-determination do not dictate any particular implementation process or political outcome or specify any enforcement mechanism. The exercise of the right to self-determination could lead to independence, federation, protection, some form of autonomy or even consensual assimilation.
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"Exercise of this right [to self-determination] can result in a variety of different outcomes ranging from political independence through to full integration within a state. The preferred outcome of an exercise of the right to self-determination varies greatly among the members of the UNPO. For some, the only acceptable outcome is full political independence. This is particularly true of occupied or colonized nations. For others, the goal is a degree of political, cultural and economic autonomy, sometimes in the form of a federal relationship. For others yet, the right to live on and manage a people's traditional lands free of external interference and incursion is the essential aim of a struggle for self-determination." Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
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"Independence Is Only One Manifestation Of Self-Determination. Self-determination is not synonymous with independence. On the contrary, independence is merely one of an infinite variety of potential outcomes of the exercise of self-determination: The establishment of a sovereign and independent State, the free association with an independent State or the emergence into any other political status freely determined by a people constitute modes of implementing the right of self-determination by that people." The Case Concerning Tibet, Tibet Justice Center
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"Self-determination need not mean independence. In many situations, autonomy within a larger nation state offers the best of both worlds, combining the benefits of being part of a large state in terms of defense, foreign relations and economic opportunity, with preservation of local laws, customs and culture from outside interference. Hong Kong is a good example." Paul Harris, Is Tibet entitled to self-determination?
In international practice, an external and internal right of self-determination is sometimes distinguished. The external right includes the right of secession, while the internal right is concerned with a people's right of self-governance within a sovereign state. Most sovereign states do not recognize the right to self-determination through secession in their constitutions.
The Chinese Communist Party followed the Soviet Union in including the right of secession in its 1931 constitution in order to help persuade ethnic nationalities and Tibet to join. However, in later years the Party eliminated this right in the PRC Constitution and has reaffirmed China as a "single multi-national state and the "national autonomous areas are inalienable parts".
Article 31 of the PRC Constitution does however provide for the creation of special administrative regions (SARs). This could be used as the framework to realize a stable and internationally supported solution for Tibet, as was achieved for Hong Kong (“One country, two systems”).
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"Unless real autonomy is offered, self-determination in Tibet is bound to mean independence. China may hold down the Tibetans by force for a long time, but, as the example of Ukraine and Russia shows, even hundreds of years of repression is unlikely to extinguish the longing for self-determination among what are, incontrovertibly, a people." Paul Harris, Is Tibet entitled to self-determination?
While guarantees of internal autonomy have generally not been well-secured by international law, under at least two circumstances internal autonomy may become an international matter: 1) when it is the consequence of treaty arrangements transferring or surrendering sovereignty or 2) when it arises out of the denial of the right of self-determination, especially those of indigenous people. Both circumstances apply to Tibet, being the subject of the 1951 Sino-Tibetan Agreement and having an indigenous population denied free choice as to their political status.
For links to more information about Tibetan self-determination and possible implementations see Information about Tibetan Self-Determination.
