Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) has published a report on the situation in the South Caucasus, arguing that there is a possibility of self-determination via remedial secession for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

“Azerbaijan’s refusal to include on the agenda of the ongoing talks Nagorno-Karabakh’s Soviet era autonomous status as a benchmark for the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination and for discussions between Armenia and Azerbaijan concerning their future fate and status, will be a clear signal of a continued rejection of that right for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, and this opens the door to the possibility of external self-determination via remedial secession,” the organization says in the report.

“For a group to be entitled to a right to collectively determine its political destiny, it must possess a focus of identity sufficient for it to attain distinctiveness as a people. The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh possess the objective and subjective factors required of a group entitled to the right to self determination.”

The report says that Azerbaijan has a long history of denying Armenians their right to self-determination, and “all indications are that without comprehensive and effective mechanisms negotiated under the auspices of the international community with substantial enforcement mechanisms, not only will this right be denied, but the Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh will continue to be subject to gross human rights violations, including ethnic cleansing and forced deportation.”

The principle of self-determination can be exercised internally, through autonomy within the contours of a larger state, or externally, by creating a new state. According to the ICJ decision in Chagos (Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 – Ed.), while external self-determination can be materialized in cases of decolonization and alien subjugation “the right to self-determination, as a fundamental human right, has a broad scope of application”. The latter suggests that external self-determination may also include remedial secession in cases of systemic oppression. This argument has been proposed also by a number of domestic and international courts and committees. While different views remain on whether external self-determination includes remedial secession, there exists no controversy that internal form of self-determination applies to all peoples.