SELF-DETERMINATION: LIST OF STATES THAT HAVE SIGNED THE TWO UN COVENANTS OF 1966, AND THEIR HYPOCRITICAL AND FALSE CONDUCT.

MIKEL URKOLA ELIZEGI

In 1966 the UN proclaimed two Covenants of great international importance: a) the one referring to Civil and Political Rights, containing 53 articles; and b) the one that sets the Economic, Social and Cultural rights, which has 31 articles. In 1977, Spain accepted these two international agreements and the then Spanish King Juan Carlos  signed them. These two Pacts are different, but their first article is identical in both, and refers to the Right of Self-Determination of Peoples, which is precisely the issue that interests us. The third paragraph of the first article of these two Covenants reads as follows: “The States that sign this Covenant (…) will promote the right to self-determination, and will respect this right, according to the Charter of the United Nations”

According to Professor Jose Antonio Obieta on this subject (JA Obieta “El derecho humano de la autodeterminación de los pueblos”, Tecnos arg., Madrid, 1985, p. 58.): “These Pacts, contrary to what happened with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, were accepted unanimously and without any abstentions: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was accepted with 105 votes in favor and no votes against; and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with 106 votes in favor and no votes against”. These two Covenants, together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – which was proclaimed in 1948 – constitute the so-called International Covenant on Human Rights.

On the other hand, these two UN Pacts of 1966 have another important factor which is specific to them: they are flexible in terms of time. The method they have used for the acceptance of the Covenants is continuous and progressive, and this continuity allows the states to freely choose the appropriate moment for their acceptance. Therefore, since 1966, the United Nations (UN) gave all the States of the world the possibility of expressing their conformity and acceptance, if they so wished. Thus, adherence to these International Agreements has been progressive and, with the passing of years, more and more States have signed the acceptance of the Agreements. Today, after 50 years, there are 174 signatory States of these Pacts, almost all the States in the world.

But one thing is to sign, and another is to comply with what has been signed. Among so many signatory States, there are not a few States that play a double game and exhibit contradictions. For example, Spain and France, which deny the Basque Country its right to self-determination, and which we firmly denounce from here. But also many other States that have signed the International Pacts and that do not comply with them: China (which denies Tibet and the Uyghur People their right to self-determination), Morocco (which does the same with the Sahara), Italy (which prevents the self-determination of South Tyrol), Belgium (which prevents Flanders), Turkey and Iraq (which prevent Kurdistan), etc. We must strongly denounce the hypocritical and false behavior of the States that have signed and do not comply with the UN Covenants.

Below we attach the current long list of the signatory States (reference: Wikipedia in French):

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacte_international_relatif_aux_droits_civils_et_politiques

LIST OF SIGNATORY STATES