A Self-Determination Principle in the Twenty-First Century

On 21 February 2022, President Vladimir Putin signed two Presidential Decrees on the recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as independent states, based on the will expressed by the people of the Republics. It was followed by the President’s well-known 24 February address launching the special operation, using the doctrine of humanitarian intervention among others as a ground for intervention, and linking the recognition of independence to the doctrine of remedial secession. In this regard, ‘the feelings and pain of these people that were the main motivating force behind our decision to recognise the independence of the Donbass people’s republics’. A year later, in a speech before the Duma, President Putin addressed the residents of Donetsk and Lugansk: ‘you, my friends, determined your future at the referendums’. Based on these facts, to consider today that the principle of self-determination is a principle linked mainly to the process of decolonization is to ignore the evolution, manipulation and politicization of one of the fundamental principles of international law, which, according to Kohen, is ‘the most important fundamental principle of contemporary international law’. In addition, certain situations and people are still awaiting the exercise of the right to self-determination in the twenty-first century. We will come back to some of them in the next section. The cases of the Sahara, Palestine and Chagos for their part, are addressed in the sections that follows.