“We, the Peoples” Declaration on the Right of Self-Determination (Draft 2)

1. We, the Peoples, claim the right of self-determination of Peoples not only as a principle stated in the UN Charter, even less as a conditional right under international law as enacted in multiple UN Treaties (International Bill of Human Rights, UNGA resolution 2625 (XXV)), but as a right that is part of ‘jus cogens’ of general international law. In that sense, we seek the decolonization of international law;

    

2. We, the Peoples define a People, unlike the UN conditional terms of ‘colonised peoples or under alien subjugation’, as historic cultural groups on historic territories (cfr. ‘Kirby definition’) existing before the creation of the UN;

    

3. We, the Peoples, concur with international jurisprudence that implementation of human rights is impossible without the prior fulfillment of the right of self-determination of Peoples;

    

4. We, the Peoples, strongly oppose the attribution of the fulfillment of the right of self-determination to Peoples of postcolonial States instead of to all Peoples. In that perspective, all Peoples in postcolonial States still seek to exercise their right to self-determination. Consequently, State references to territorial integrity at this stage are not consistent with the right of self-determination of all Peoples;

    

5. We, the Peoples, insist on the UN to reform its Security Council so that an international order based on self-determination of Peoples, peace and security can finally take root.

    

6. We, the Peoples, insist on the swift creation of a United Nations Peoples Assembly, composed of all Peoples, and a United Nations Peoples Secretariat who will, ideally in concertation with the UN institutions, draft a United Nations Peoples Declaration on the right of self-determination of Peoples which unequivocally recognizes this right as ‘jus cogens’.

    

7. The United Nations Peoples Secretariat will use all political means, a.o. referenda, to execute the United Nations Peoples Declaration on the right of self-determination of Peoples.

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