What is “Remedial Secession” and why is it applicable to Nagorno-Karabakh?
The principle of “Remedial Secession” is the modern manifestation of the principle of self-determination of a people, which entitles people who are indigenous to a certain territory to secede from any state when there is a proven record of discrimination, widespread human rights violations or threat of ethnic cleansing (genocide). The notion is coming from the United Nations (UN) principle called “Responsibility to Protect,” which entails protection of people by states and the international community from the aforementioned threats. To date, the concept was exercised in the framework of bilateral relations, meaning individual countries recognized the independence of the seceding states, which later on were gradually accepted by other international bodies. The examples of people who exercised their right of self-determination via Remedial Secession include Kosovo in 2008, East Timor in 1999 and South Sudan in 2011.
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Thank you for this concise yet very informative article that can be very useful tool for information also for non Armenian public.
The government of Armenia should present these facts at an emergency session of the UN and demand urgent and immediate action to recognise and protect the independance of Artsakh.
Unfortunately, the concept of redmedial sucession isn’t enshrined in any international law, and even the general universal statement in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 1 doesn’t allow it to overcome the principle of ‘territorial integrity’.
Equally unfortunate is the tendency for Armenians to concentrate on the very real genocidal threat to indigenous Armenians of Artsakh (not NK, as this is a colonial Persian-Turk term). This has been a completely unsuccessful strategy as the world has proven that it largely doesn’t care because it thinks Armenians are somehow also Russians. A better strategy would be to concentrate on the false claim by Azerbaijan to Artsakh as part of its ‘territorial integority, by reminding the world that Azerbaijan wasn’t an internationally recognised spovereign nation until 26 December 1991.