as encompassing two essential pillars:
1. The free choice of political status – defined in terms of sovereign
independence from, free association, or integration with an independent
state.16 It implies that a people has a right to choose their own political
destiny,17 through participation in the political decision-making process,
directly or through a representative government; and
2. The free pursuit of the people’s economic, social and cultural
development – and the correlated free and unhindered disposal
of its natural wealth and resources. 18 It is both the right to choose
and to exercise decisions, as well as the right not to be deprived
of the means of subsistence or suffer the destruction of culture. 19
International law additionally recognizes three basic conditions
for self-determination: participation, access and contribution to
economic, social and cultural life. 20
Generally accepted as a jus cogens principle of international law21 and
the foundation for the realization of all other fundamental human rights,22
the right to self-determination is understood to be a right from which no
16 UNGA, Principles Which Should Guide Members in Determining Whether or not an Obligation Exists
to Transmit the Information called for under Article 73(e) of the Charter, A/RES/1541, 15 December
1960, Principle VI, available at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/206178?ln=en [28 February
2020].
17 Ben Saul et al., “Article 1: The Right of Peoples of Self-Determination, Article 25: The Right to Freely
Utilize Natural Resources”, in The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 56.
18 ICCPR, supra 15, art.1(2); ICESCR, supra 15, art.1(2) & art.25; See also UNGA, Permanent Sovereignty
over Natural Resources, A/RES/1803(XVII), 14 December 1962, art.1, available at: https://www.
un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/1803(XVII) [accessed 28 February 2020].
19 UNGA, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, A/RES/61/295, 2 October
2007, art. 8(1), available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/
uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf.
20 United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment no. 21,
Right of Everyone to Take Part in Cultural Life (art. 15, §1a of the Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights), E/C.12/GC/21, 21 December 2009, §15, available at: https://tbinternet.ohchr.
org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2fC.12%2fGC%2f21&Lang=en
[accessed 28 February 2020].
21 See Ralph Wilde, “Applicability of Human Rights Law to the Palestinian Territories with a Specific Focus
on the Respective Responsibilities of Israel, as the Extraterritorial State, and Palestine, as the Territorial
State,” Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Resource Center, expert opinion (9 February 2018),
available at: https://www.diakonia.se/globalassets/blocks-ihl-site/ihl-file-list/ihl--expert-opionions/
the-applicability-of-human-rights-law-to-the-palestinian-territories-with-a-specific-focus-on
[accessed 28 February 2020].
22 UNGA, The Right of Peoples and Nations to Self-Determination, A/RES/637(VII), 16 December 1952,
available at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/079/80/IMG/NR007980.
pdf?OpenElement [accessed 28 February 2020].
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