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Self-Determination as a Human Rights: The main objective of the proposed research is to attempt to give an answer to the question that articulated as follows: Do the Kurds in Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria have a legal right for internal self-determination (autonomy) or external self-determination (independence)?
The research questions directly stem from the domain of public international law. Therefore, in order to find relevant answers to the questions of the research, so it is essential to go ?through international law? to identify the criteria for the Kurdish claim of independent statehood. Also, the study aims at distinguishing between two fundamental principles of international public law: a) principle of self-determination; b) the principle of territorial integrity. The difference between the two principles will support the paper.
To progress, which is the rationale key to this study is the fact that the historical homeland of the Kurds (Kurdistan) divided among states such as Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Thus, it is necessary to find out the Kurdish?s claim of internal self-determination and independent statehood. This is a legal and justifiable right under the international law provisions. While the international public law protects sovereignty of states in all international affairs.
The research will be conduct through the logical scientific steps. Firstly, it starts with a literature review which is the evaluation of findings and arguments of previous authors in order to identify gaps, limitations, contradictions. The review of previous publications is to clarify the motivations of many contemporary scholars in regard to self-determination. The Literature Review will put forward considerations in regard to divergence of scholars? opinions and arguments.
The chapter ?results and discussion? will consist of the reiteration and clarification of results of my research that will be achieve by means of literature review, case study.
The last Chapter will be of pertinent conclusions and recommendations.
1.2 Aim
The aim of this proposal is to conduct the in-depth study of the legality of the Kurdish claim to external Self-Determination in order to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural rights.
Chapter II: literature Review:
2.1 Theoretical dimensions of self-determination as a legal right.
At first, it is necessary to state that self-determination is a legal right which is not clearly explained and defined in the framework of international public law. In this regard, the main aim of the current section is to define the criteria of self-determination as a legal right and discuss the main characteristics which help to prove that self-determination is a fundamental legal right which surpasses other international right both in context and extent.
The analysis of self-determination as a legal right should start in the context of colonialism. Self-determination from the colonialist point of view considered an aggression against the imperial power. In this way, the endeavours of peoples to self-determination are fundamentally inconsistent to the principles of the imperial from of political regime.
The right to self-determination in the post-colonial context explained in the United Nations Charter. In Article 1 of the UN Charter, self-determination of people, in combining with the concept of principle of equal rights, proclaimed as a principle which determines the character of relations among nations. UN?s General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) ?Declares on the granting of independence to colonial countries and people?, the acts of subduing peoples to alien domination and exploitation constitute a violation of fundamental human rights and recognised by the United Nations as an obstacle to the global peace and collaboration.
Also, the study aim as well is revealing transmutes of self-determination in relation to the concepts of remedial secession and new world order. Contemporary researches take efforts to interpret the term ?internal self-determination? as universal right for all people, not only colonial peoples. Robbyn Michelle Usherwood states that the concept of internal self-determination firmly linked to the notion of internal colony. According to the author, Turkey?s long-oppression and domination over Kurds should be regarded as a case of an internal colony.
2.2 Interplays between territorial integrity and self-determination view from the international law Provisions:
This section is to establish the linkage between the principle of territorial integrity and self-determination. The connection between them is negative as the principle of self-determination contradicts the doctrine of sovereignty. In fact, the self-determination demonstrates the right of the peoples as sovereign to form democratic governance within existing state. However, the principle of state sovereignty stresses on the necessity to preserve, protect the territorial integrity and promote stability of the national authorities.
According to Brian Bernhardt (2010), that paradigm of state sovereignty expresses that a government is the supreme authority which rules within a territory. This paradigm consists of two characteristics of the territorial integrity. First, no other entity either outside or inside of a specific territory entitled to override the decisions of state authority. Second, the people outside the state have no right to create a decision-making claim over the state.
It appears that is possible to establish equality balance between the principle of territorial integrity and self-determination. Nevertheless, the latter is superior in legal force to the former. Therefore, the principle of territorial integrity underlines the equality among states as the main rules in the field of international law and guarantees that their sovereignty protected on an equal basis. Therefore, the principle of self-determination relates to the entitlements of peoples and not to the rights of states. Father Robert Araujo, notices that a number of national constitutions articulate that people or the citizenry as a community of people entitled to exercise the ultimate sovereignty, regardless of the fact that the state or government possesses sovereign power.
2.3 The peculiarities of the Kurdish as compared with other cases of self-determination in terms of international human rights law:
This section will be the most instructive part of the proposed literature review. The main objective will be to disclose the specificities of the Kurdish case, compare with significant features of other cases of self-determination and secession such as the Palestinian case and Chechen case.
It should be stated that the Kurds in their claim to self-determination rely on the prescriptions of international law which provide ?that all peoples have the right to self-determination?. Although, Hawraman Ali is prone to believe that the conventional regulation of self-determination should be understood in the colonial framework only. In this regard, that the right to self-determination is not well-established in other non-colonial cases.
Thus, the Kurdish question has no definite settlement because the Kurdish people lie outside of the colonial context. Ali stated that Kurds have a truly unique position as the Treaty of Sevres of 1920 initially provided their own independent state, and ensure to obtain the right to determine their own political future, whereas the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 denied the Kurds right to independence.
The Kurds Promised Land divided between sovereign states of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran by the demarcations of the borders set out in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. In this sense, the main specificity of the Kurdish case is the denial of their rights. In the Hardy Cojer essay?s states that self-determination is not only a universal legal right but also a moral and ethical principle. In his opinion, there is a wider range of historical evidence that justifies the secessionist movement of the Kurds. Among other things, the historical origins of the Kurds, their language, religion, demographical features, societal institutions, topography, economic factors and other components should be taken into consideration while making a decision respecting the legitimacy of the Kurds claim to the right of self-determination.
Indeed, such historical origins, language, religion, societal institutions, etc., should be considered the core characteristics to support the Kurdish case from other similar instances of self-determination. According to Clovis Masksoud, there is a clear distinction between the legal status of the Kurds and the Palestinians, the Kurds persistently treated as minorities in their respective countries. In this way, there is a dilemma whether the Kurds should be treated as a minority rights within the framework of autonomy, or do they possess national rights that can only be realized by way of national self-determination? On the contrary, that Palestinians self-determination has not been restricted to an autonomy framework because they take serious efforts to ascertain their national rights.
In this study, the Kurds case will be comparing to dimensions of the Palestinian case; will also be paid attention to the Chechen case.
Findings from the literature review and case study will be reiterated, generalized, explained and discussed in this chapter. The significance of the chapter is that the discussion of results will help to demonstrate their validity and reliability of the proposed research by comparing it with previous researches.
3. Chapter III: Conclusions and Recommendations:
After the research is finished, appropriate conclusions and recommendations will be made in this chapter.
4. Plan of the proposed dissertation:
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