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1 - Fixing Selves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2024

Umut Özsu
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Ottawa
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Summary

This chapter analyzes the negotiations for the 1970 Friendly Relations Declaration, the high-water mark of efforts by socialist and non-aligned states to win support for an expansive interpretation of national self-determination. Lawyers and diplomats from industrialized states typically argued that the right to self-determination could be exercised in a number of different ways, including loose association or confederation. They also maintained that self-determination, understood as a human right, could be secured through adequate recognition within states and did not necessarily require secession. By contrast, those speaking on behalf of the states and peoples of Asia, Africa, and other zones of decolonization framed self-determination in more capacious terms, as a right to ‘economic’ no less than ‘political’ sovereignty. Arguing that formal independence meant little if decolonized states remained hampered by earlier arrangements, they called for an international redistribution of rights and resources. They also stressed that the right to self-determination permitted armed struggle against colonial and occupying powers. Crafted through close engagement with such arguments, the 1970 resolution formalized an unsteady compromise between these two approaches, encouraging self-determination but never so far as to destabilize a fragile interstate system undergoing extensive reconfiguration.

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Chapter
Information
Completing Humanity
The International Law of Decolonization, 1960–82
, pp. 36 - 71
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Fixing Selves
  • Umut Özsu, Carleton University, Ottawa
  • Book: Completing Humanity
  • Online publication: 16 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108566230.004
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Fixing Selves
  • Umut Özsu, Carleton University, Ottawa
  • Book: Completing Humanity
  • Online publication: 16 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108566230.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Fixing Selves
  • Umut Özsu, Carleton University, Ottawa
  • Book: Completing Humanity
  • Online publication: 16 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108566230.004
Available formats
×