UNGA Resolution 2625 (XXV) 1970 — Friendly Relations Declaration

Summary

Elaborates the seven principles of the UN Charter including the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples. Contains the crucial 'safeguard clause' (also called the remedial secession clause): territorial integrity protection applies only to governments 'representing the whole people belonging to the territory without distinction as to race, creed or colour'. This is the foundational text for the doctrine of remedial secession.

Relevance to the diaspora

The safeguard clause of UNGA 2625 is the linchpin of the Tamil diaspora's legal argument that, where a government systematically excludes and persecutes a people, that people's right to external self-determination is triggered; Sri Lanka's treatment of Tamils is argued to satisfy this threshold.

Key provisions

• Principle V — equal rights and self-determination of peoples
• Para 7 — every state has duty to refrain from forcible action depriving peoples of self-determination
• Safeguard clause — territorial integrity protection conditional on representative government 'without distinction'
• Para 1 — all peoples have right to freely determine political status

Primary source

Related entries

• → UNGA Resolution 1514 (XV) 1960 — Declaration on Decolonisation (UN)
• → ICCPR Article 1 — Right of Self-Determination (UN)
• → ICJ Advisory Opinion on Kosovo — Accordance with International Law of Declaration of Independence (2010) (UN)
• → Remedial Secession Doctrine (Academic/Customary International Law) (UN)