We the people of the United Nations…, begins the preamble of the UN charter, delineating the ineluctable link between the peoples and the states. Since the advent of the human civilization, the omitting of the right to self-determination and the mass struggle to restore their right to the self-determination, evident from the pact between the Barons and the King John of England, has been the culmination of humanity’s core history at the field of Runnymede. Global indifferences in twenty first century depicts the historical struggle of Carthage under Hannibal against the elite Roman Empire as the decolonization of many countries became the signatory mark of the twenty first century. In this contemporary world, the right to self-determination stands at a very ambiguous place as the global indifferences have skewed the conceptualization of right to self- determination.
In 1970, then Secretary General of the United Nations, U Thant, said, “The concept of the right to self-determination is not properly understood in many parts of the world”. The universal consensus of the United Nations upon the right of self-determination of “peoples” is that it shouldn’t be interpreted as right of all people’s to self-determination, and the concept of right to self-determination as a just movement against imperialism and racism in South Africa is such a malaise on the part of the United Nations. The accentuation, by the champions of the human rights, on the true meaning of right to self
determination is necessary and vital to stop the scourge on the face of humanity.
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Verily, the global indifferences towards the right of self-determination are evident by the unsolved conflicts in Sudan, Brundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Angola, where the vested interests of the global powers are scourging the human rights.
Evolution of human rights preceded the right to self-determination since the signing of Magna Carta. The violation of human rights during the medieval Europe, the church monopoly and the obstacles in the way towards individual freedom and right to self determination, the demarcation and indifferences to exercise the natural rights by the bourgeoisie always challenged the society to attain their individual as well as collective rights. The disgruntled masses carried out the Puritan revolution, again hijacked by the bourgeoisie further succumbed the humanity and their right to self-determination. On April 19, 1775 the minute men at the Concord’s north bridge showed the sheer improvisation against the colonial rule to claim their right of self-determination ended up writing the American constitution which states as, “We the people…” R.W. Emerson paid tribute, to the Minute Men, in his poem “Concord hymn”
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The fallacy of United Nations (UN) as the universal champion of human rights is evident from the fact that it has been, the surrogate to the major powers, and remained unable to exercise its own texts in practical as the article 1 of the UN charter says, “it based upon…..principle of equal rights and self-determination of people”. The mal practice of the global indifferences, towards the rights of the Kashmiris, since the ceasefire in 1948, has resulted in the large scale human rights violation and the mass movements against the atrocities of the India’s illegitimate occupation, but the lipsing service is being provided by the UN in this regard. The UN resolution no. 38, 39, 47 and 51 of 1948 to conduct the plebiscite are still pending as the Kashmiri’s haven’t casted a vote for a decade ago. The supreme court of India in July 2024 has given the verdict that the general elections in the IOJ&K should be decided till September, 2024 (Javed Naqvi, Dawn) which is still ambiguous given the past record of Indian government behavior towards the Kashmiri’s is concerned.
The global indifferences and Carrot and stick policy by UNO in the hands of USA has depicted how discriminately world behaved when the Serbs used to massacre the hapless Albanians in the during war of 1998-99 and the reservation, in the recognition of the Albanian state, by the UN were based upon whether the Albanians fulfilled the criteria of being the “Peoples” in order to legitimize their right to self-determination under the Article
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1 of the UN charter, while the attack on Russia throttle the US and EU’s desire to alienate the Ukraine into NATO and the stifling of their vested interests in NATO expansion and using Ukraine as proxy to contaminate Russia, made the EU and USA commiserating the Ukrainians with procurement of 19 jets from Denmark and 24 aircrafts from Netherlands along with US$ 50 billion loan to Ukraine by the G7 and freezing the US$ 322bn assets of Russia. The global indifferences of such kind causes the masses to act tardily, and the insurgence of the mass movements that turned into arms movement to gain their right to self-determination.
The conflicting interests of the major powers has stifled the right to self-determination and caused irreparable loss to the spirit of humanity. The Kurds, world’s largest peoples without a state, are living as minorities in Iraq, Iran and Turkiye fighting for their right of self-determination since 1920’s Treaty of Severes. The void between the Iraq and Iran along with the USA’s vested geo-political interests in the Middle East during the 1970s desisted the Kurds from their recognition as “peoples”. The UNGA adopted the common Article 1, of International covenant on civil-political rights and International covenant on economics, social and cultural rights, in 1966, which states that, “All people have the right of self-determination..” but neither US nor the UN assuaged the Kurds when Prime Minister Abdu ul-karim Qasim stripped the 120,000 Kurds from Syrian citizenship. The lacuna between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Iran and their fight for hegemony of Arabian Peninsula has incited the Gulf with plethora of militant organizations and proxies whose consequences can be seen far beyond the borders causing the irreparable damage to the right of life for the Yemenite as the 85% of them are plunged into the hostile famine and food crisis. The withdrawal of the NATO and USA from Afghanistan left the country in sheer turmoil as the country faced the stringent food shortage. The modern day US didn’t stop ascribing them as terrorists whom President Richard Nixon once called “Freedom fighters”, freezing US$ 3.5bn assets as pursuant to the executive order 14064 and asked Taliban to ensure the human rights while embroiling, more than 2 million children on the brink of death due to food shortage, itself. The indifferences of the global powers towards the rights of the 3rd world countries is a malaise on the part of the major powers who has sought the right to self-determination as just the movement of the colonial states against colonizers.
Having said that, the hypocrisy of the global powers inundates the world, even the god didn’t trust the allied forces during the dark. The famous book written, on the diaspora of the Jews, by Theodor Herzl, “The old new people” paved the way towards curbing the rights of the Palestinians and supported by the secret Sykes-Picot agreement aimed at dividing the Middle East into French and British divisions post the WWI. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Severes in 1920, enjoined by the Balfour declaration 1917 detained the Palestinians from their right to self-determination. The Britain deceived the Arabs by promising them the division of Arabia but on the other hand
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the revelation of secret Sykes-Picot agreement turned the Arabs into violent movement. The invoking of the Jews into the Palestinian lands caused the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians, 80% of total population from their lands and is called as the great Nakba of 1948. Neither UN nor the US and the world leading states ensured the reversal of the Belfour declaration proving John Mearsheimer’s point, of “Paradoxical hegemon” of the Jews over the US and the UN and the vested interests of the White House in Jewish lobby. In the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, only the UN resolution 181 and 242 were accepted by both Palestine and Israel after the 6 days Arab-Israel war. But the world has not put a deaf ear to the plight of the Palestinians yet, causing the turbulent shifts in the heart of the Middle East and initiating the rich chances for another world war.
The end of world war II saw the creation of a new world order decorated with the provision of the right to self-determination and the declaration of the UN human charter whose article (1) gives the right to self-determination without any indifferences. But the fallacy and indifferences shown by the UN and its masters towards the colonized states in Kashmir, Bosnia, Kosovo and Yugoslavia. The carrot and stick policy has marred the concept of right to self-determination towards the post-colonial states as the geopolitical interests of the global powers has always undermined the fundamental rights of the Kurds, Yemenites and the people of Palestine. The allied forces led by the Great Britain and the Sykes-Picot agreement obscured the concept and practical meaning of right to self-determination.
In the contemporary world, it is no wonder that the insurgence of conflicts and sheer indifferences shown by the champions of human rights has helped create the non-state violent actors thus embroiled humanity in security dilemmas and volatility of the democratic institutions. The whole campaign of deterring the right to self-determination has given the world a callous and brutal idea of violence and ethnicity, being fueled by the propaganda and used as proxies to demoralize the democratic process and exercise of the right to self-determination. This world, with all its might, resources, technology, ideas, innovation and modernity cannot help itself achieve the universal peace unless and until the practice of right to self-determination of the people of conflict zones, should not be ensured and taken as first and foremost prosperity. Without this, the idea and framework of the UN charter of human rights and Magna Carta can't shape an indivisible society, friends and partners, neighbors and strangers.
