Ms Francisca Ampomah-lokeland1
1The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia
Biography:
I am PhD Candidate from Bergen, Norway studying at the University of Queensland, Australia. My research area is in secession, armed conflict, state formation, UN Charter, Sovereignty, Self-determination, Peacebuilding etc. Prior to my PhD studies, I worked as a Scientific Assistant to the Head of Institute, Western Norway of Applied Sciences (HVL). Other research areas that I have worked on include Corporate Social Responsibility, Green innovation, Norwegian Oil Fund etc. I also translate scientific journals/articles from Norwegian to English and vice-versa.
Abstract:
The purpose of international law is to manage the affairs its subjects: states. International law does not grant nor prohibit sub-states the right to secession. Even though, the right to secession is not found in any important UN document, it is one of the many forms of self-determination of a people. International law acknowledges both the right to self-determination and state sovereignty. The tension between the application of the right of a people to self-determination and the right of a state to its territorial integrity, shows a broader challenge that is intrinsic to international law as a legal system. The principle of self-determination was the driving force behind decolonization, and state sovereignty became the key prize of decolonization. The sovereign self is a self-determined self, but then this raises the question of who gets to be sovereign? And who gets to determine that? Self-determination is a problem for states in two ways. First, secession interferes with the territorial boundaries of a state, by truncating part of the host state sovereignty. The other reason why self-determination is a problem for states is that, if a generalised right to self-determination by secession is allowed, it opens a pandora box to lots of claims, political conflicts and questions about who the ‘self’ is, that is entitled to determine? This paper explores how the exercise of the right to self-determination and state sovereignty played out differently in Biafra, South Sudan and Somaliland, in their struggle for their own independent or formal statehood