"More than any recent occasion, the First International Conference on the Right to Self-determination & the United Nations, held in Geneva during the millennial year 2000, dramatized the range of claims and the severity of suffering associated with their denial under a variety of statist and geopolitical pretexts... a truly historical contribution..."
From the Preface by Richard Falk, Princeton University

In pursuit of THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION Collected Papers & Proceedings of the First International Conference on the   Right to Self-Determination & the United Nations G E N E V A  2000 edited by Y.N. Kly and D. Kly preface by Richard Falk ISBN: 0-932863-32-9 232 pages  *  $21.95 Press Release Contributors Reviews Order Info

In today’s world, there are more than 2000 thousand ethnic groups but only 192 states. When dominant ethnic groups ignore the socio-economic and cultural identity needs and rights of other peoples within the same state, demands for self-determination arise.  Wars that threaten the stability of whole regions often result.

This book – the collected papers of the historic First International Conference on the Right to Self-Determination & the United Nations held in Geneva in August, 2000 –  is unique in that the issue of the right to self-determination is explored within the context of just demands by those to whom it means the most.

It presents the views of minority members of various parliaments, UN experts and distinguished scholars, as well as interventions from NGO attendees from all corners of the globe expressing the self-determination needs and struggles of a wide range of indigenous populations, minorities, and internal nations:  Kashmiris, QuebeÇois, Irish, Tamils, Native Americans, African Americans, , Saamis, South Moluccans, Roma, Dalits of India, Canadian First Nations, Khmer Krom of Vietnam, Chechens, Mon of Burma, Puerto Ricans, Native Hawaiians, the Quichua indigenous nation of Ecuador, the Zanzibaris, etc.

The Collected Papers address such questions as:

The role of the UN in implementing just demands for self-determination
Self-determination as a form of collective restorative justice
The relationship between policies of forced assimilation and racism, ethnocide and armed conflict
Self-determination through minority rights, internal autonomy or Secession
Self-determination as a means of further democratization of the UN and the international system

The First International Conference on the Right to Self-Determination and the United Nations concluded in Geneva with the unanimous adoption of its resolutions, amid expression by many of the attendees that the three-day event marked an historic milestone in the struggle of the international community to come to grips with the thorny issue of the internationally-recognized right to self-determination. Co-sponsored by the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (IHRAAM), an international NGO in consultative status with the UN, and the International Council for Human Rights (ICHR), the Conference attracted a full house of delegates, who packed the Zurich Room of the prestigious Forum Park Hotel to hear the Conference Roster of distinguished speakers, participate in the four Conference workshops, and draft and adopt the final Conference resolutions urging the establishment of new UN mechanisms related to self-determination.  Mr. Glélé-Ahanhanzo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia, was in attendance for the opening banquet, while UN Sub-Commission expert David Weissbrodt and Mme. Blyth-Kubota, from the UN Working Group on Minorities Secretariat, visited the Conference on its second day. Mr. Daniel Atchebro, Human Rights Officer at the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, in a presentation from the floor, outlined the program of the forthcoming World Conference Against Racism for Conference delegates, and urged their participation.  A full text of the Conference press release by its co-sponsor, the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (IHRAAM) is available on the Conference website.
 

CONTRIBUTORS:

PREFACE:  Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice at Princeton University

OPENING SPEAKER: Mr. George Reid, Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament

WELCOMING ADDRESS: Dr. Y. N. Kly, IHRAAM Chair and African American Intl Legal Scholar

Syed Nazir Gilani, Jammu Kashmir Council for Human Rights.

Karen Parker, Chief/Delegate of the International Educational Developmental/Humanitarian Law Project at the United Nations, is an attorney specializing in human rights and humanitarian (armed conflict) law.  Her numerous legal articles are published in law journals and books in many countries. Her annual “Armed Conflict Around the World:  A Country by Country Review” is published by the Parliamentary Human Rights Group (UK) (now on Internet).  Her extensive work on self-determination includes studies, Congressional testimony and Court appearances on application of self-determination to the armed struggles in Burma (especially the Karenni peoples), Kashmir, Acheh, the Moluccas, East Timor, Tibet, Cyprus, Turkey, Western Sahara and Sri Lanka.  She has also presented many written and oral statements on these situations at United Nations sessions.

Ms. Suzette Bronkhurst of the Magenta Foundation, Netherlands. Suzette Bronkhorst is a former chief editor of a Dutch Green Party publication, and initiator and general manager of the Internet Centre Anti-Racism (I-CARE).

Marquetta L. Goodwine, Chieftess, Gullah-Geechee Nation.   A petition campaign led to the enstoolement of Marquetta L. Goodwine as Chieftess of the Gullah-Geechee people in July, 2000. The Gullah are  descendants of involuntary African immigrants to North America, many of whom fled enslavement.  Today they number some 500,000 persons, speaking a creole language, Gullah, and maintaining what may be the purest continuation of the African culture in North America,  despite nearly overwhelming pressure to assimilate. Ms. Goodwine appeared on video;  this publication makes her written presentation available.

Mr. Kenneth Deer, editor of The Eastern Door, The Mohawk Nation in Canada

Prof. Mehdi Imberesh of Al Fateh University bears two PhDs, one in the Philosophy of History from Leipzig University and a second in the Philosophy of Civilisation.  He is a Professor in the Social Sciences Faculty of Al-Fateh University, Tripoli. He started his political activities in the People's Committee of the Jamahiriyan People's Bureau in Washington, DC during the years 1979-81. He was appointed in the capacity of Ameen of the Jamahiriyan People's Bureau, i.e. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Germany from 1981 to 1986.  Since then, he has served as Ameen of the Libyan Arab People's Bureau to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and has been appointed as the Libyan accredited ameen to Turkmenistan.

Dr. Hans Koechler, Head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Innsbruck, Austria and Director of the International Progress Organization, Vienna. Since 1998, Professor Koechler has served as member of the Council of Europe's Expert Group on Democratic Citizenship.  Since 1999, he has served as member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Balanced Development (CBD)(USA).  He also acts as Board Member and co-coordinator of the NGO Committee on Development (United Nations Office at Vienna).   With Irish Nobel Laureate Sean MacBride, he initiated the Appeal by Lawyers against Nuclear War.  As President of IPO, he dealt with the humanitarian issues of the exchange of prisoners of war between Iran and Iraq, and with the issue of Kuwaiti POWs and missing people in Iraq. Since 1972, UN Secretaries-General  have acknowledged Professor Koechler's contribution to international peace in their statements. In April 2000, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Professor Koechler as international observer at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands (Lockerbie Trial).  Through his research and international activities, Professor Koechler has made major contributions to the debate on United Nations reform, in particular reform of the Security Council. His publication list contains over 200 books and scholarly articles.

Dr. Robert Brock of the African American Self-Determination Committee, and his wife, Mickie, Washington, DC, USA. The Self-Determination Committee seeks to have the US government establish consociated democratic institutions permitting  the African American minority  to meet their special needs and culture resulting from their special historical relationship with the majority.

Mr. Joseph v. Komlossy, Vice President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities, Switzerland.

Barrister Majid Tramboo, Member of IHRAAM Directorate & Director, International Council for Human Rights, United Kingdom

REVIEWS:

Review by Foreign policy in Focus. Foreign Policy in Focus has a subproject called Self-Determination and Governance, funded by the Carnegie Corporation. One dimension of this project is a listserv that goes out to think tanks, academic institutions and experts around the world concerned with self-determination issues. The review below went to the listserv and is posted on the FPIF website, which receives 2950 unique visitors daily on average (close to 30,000 hits daily).

This is a book with a purpose to advance a proposal for considering and resolving self-determination conflicts. The volume includes papers and presentations from the FirstInternational Conference on the Right to Self-Determination, which was organized in Geneva last year by the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities and the International Council for Human Rights. The conference unanimously passed a resolution recommending that the UN establish an Office of the High Commissioner for Self-Determination and a Self-Determination Commission comprising representatives of UN member states.

An introductory chapter by Andre Frankovitz argues that "there is a pressing need for a mechanism for the achievement of self-determination and that this needs to be anchored in the United Nations system." As is, however, the mechanisms to address self-determination issues are inadequate, argues the author, partly because of the UN's limited definition of self-determination and partly because of the inadequacy of the UN's human rights mechanisms, which focus on monitoring the abuses of individual rights, not collective rights. Although the wide acceptance by UN member states of international human rights norms is regarded as a major achievement of the UN, the "time is ripe" for the UN to more directly address ethnic and minority issues given "the increasing awareness by the international community of the costs associated with the struggles for self-determination and their possible impact on the globalizing world."

A Self-Determination Commission would extend the work of the General Assembly's Decolonization Committee to consider self-determination conflicts within member nations. Such a body would consider the validity of the self-determination demands of ethnic, minority, and indigenous groups and recommend solutions to the UN Security Council. Proponents of such a commission, including those participating in this conference, are quick to note that self-determination should not be interpreted to mean secession. Although not entirely ruling out the need to establish new, independent states, especially by occupied and colonized nations, they say that most self-determination demands could be peaceably resolved by more pluralistic governance options, such as autonomy and federalism.

The preface by Richard Falk concisely and persuasively presents the argument for the creation of international self-determination norms and mechanisms outside the "statist prism." What's needed is "a self-determination regime that operates to the extent possible in accordance with the Rule of Law, treating equals equally … [and] such a regime is best situated within the United Nations, with as much independence as possible."

While Falk is not optimistic that the UN will take steps in the near future to adopt a post-colonial self-determination agenda, he detects some hopeful signs in the increased participation of civil society in global affairs. He acknowledges the many obstacles to creating such a mechanism within a world governance structure founded on the sanctity of national sovereignty, but points to alternative strategies that should be pursued. Until the time when a UN mechanism is established, Falk says, "the torch of post-colonial self-determination must and will be carried primarily by the transnational forces of civil society. These forces can build a climate of opinion that shifts the political calculus in favor of particular claimants, as occurred in the course of the anti-apartheid struggle waged so successfully by the transnational forces of civil society."

Valuable to all self-determination researchers and advocates is an appendix listing major self-determination documents, such as UN documents, along with their URLs.

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