The UN Charter’s guarantee of self-determination has so far turned out to be a mirage. Over the years, several Yoruba self-determination campaign groups and individuals have petitioned the UN to no avail. What can we do?
Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, in a speech given at the 48th Session of the UNGA, on 25 October 1993, proposed ‘Effective realization of the right of Self-determination through Autonomy’. According to his proposal, communities with ‘a degree of territorial and social cohesion’ would be invested with degrees of the ‘autonomy’ based on ‘minimal mechanisms’. Consent of the State would be required. There would be a) a body set up to oversee implementation, b) an authority charged with ‘the practical operation of arrangements’, and c) peaceful resolution of differences. The impracticalities of these proposals are blindingly obvious. The requirement for State consent took matters back to the Kosovo and Somaliland situations.
There have been calls for the 1933 Montevideo statehood criteria to be used as the mechanism for actualising self-determination, but this immediately raised two problems: to who should the application be made, and who would assess the application? Besides, Montevideo was advisory only, intended to assist established States in making the decision whether or not to recognise a previously unrecognised entity. A territory had to be in a physical manifestation before theMontevideo could be applied to it. In other words, the process of self-determination preceded application of the Montevideo.
UN Charter Articles 39-42 provide mechanisms for enforcing the Right of Self-determination. Article 39 provides:
‘The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.’
Articles 40-42 authorised sanctions that might be applied in lieu. Baroness Cox of Humanitarian Aid Relief (HART) and others, for example, petitioned the UN in 2022 regarding wanton, indiscriminate, and extensive killings of Christians in Nigeria but the UN did nothing. For reasons of international politics and the veto powers of the permanent members of the UNSC, it has hitherto not been possible for the UN to evenly apply these Charter provisions. The situation is not likely to change for the foreseeable future. There are 4 inhabited continents – Africa, America, Asia and Europe. Only Africa has no permanent member of the UN Security Council even though Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia and South Africa were signatories to the UN Declaration in 1942.
UN Charter Article 4 provides the ‘route of admission rights’:
‘1. Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.
- The admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.’
The only requirement for UN Membership is ‘judgement of the Organisation’. Admission is political not legal. It amounts to collective recognition by those states that voted in favour of Membership. Article 4 has an exhaustive character. No other conditions could be imported into it. As John Dugard wrote in The Secession of States and Their Recognition in the Wake of Kosovo (2013):
‘By admitting a seceding entity to membership of the United Nations, the United Nations confers the imprimatur of statehood on that entity. Admission to the United Nations constitutes “legal” or “general” recognition that will be respected by all Member States of the United Nations.’
The UN has a standard procedure for dealing with applications for membership.
Rule 59 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the UNSC:
‘The Secretary-General shall immediately place the application for membership before the representatives on the Security Council. Unless the Security Council decides otherwise, the application shall be referred by the President to a committee of the Security Council upon which each member of the Security Council shall be represented. The committee shall examine any application referred to it and report its conclusions thereon to the Council not less than thirty-five days in advance of a regular session of the General Assembly or, if a special session of the General Assembly is called, not less than fourteen days in advance of such session.’
Rule 60 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the UNSC:
‘The Security Council shall decide whether in its judgement the applicant is a peace-loving State and is able and willing to carry out the obligations contained in the Charter and, accordingly, whether to recommend the applicant State for membership.’
The Yoruba Party in the UK (YPUK) will be using the Article 4 provisions to apply for UN membership for Yorubaland. If this initiative appeals to you, join us at www.yorubapartyuk.org