AGITATIONS FOR SELF-DETERMINATION: BALANCING THE COMPETING PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOVEREIGNTY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

Abstract

The right to self-determination is recognized under international human rights law as the right of all peoples including indigenous peoples to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Placing reliance on the right of self-determination, minorities and indigenous peoples /groups have raised and still raise claims towards either secession from an already sovereign State or independence and freedom from domination. The said claims have consistently culminated into agitations which have been argued to clash with certain fundamental principles of public international law such as sovereignty, territorial integrity, prohibition of force and the principle of non-intervention. The paper inquired into the right to self-determination and agitations thereof. The paper seeks to balance the competing principles of human rights and sovereignty in international law vis-à-vis the legality and viability of agitations for self-determination. The doctrinal method of legal research was adopted in this paper. It was found that the merger of the various indigenous peoples in Nigeria was actually in furtherance of the 1914 arbitrary amalgamation by the colonialist (Great Britain) and accordingly, has been one of the sources of fortification for agitations for self-determination. The constitutional provisions in Nigeria for dealing with the issue of heterogeneity in the population such as federal character and national integration are both insufficient and feeble in terms of contents and implementation; this also has created loss of sense of belonging, lack of national loyalty and absence of unity which have resulted to the spate of agitations for self-determination in Nigeria. Among other things, this paper recommended unequivocal resolutions and support by the United Nations and African Union in affirmation of the inalienable right to self-determination of all peoples including all indigenous peoples.