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VOL. 8, ISSUE 12 (2021)
The principle of self-determination and Kosovo Albanians
Authors
Sajmir Bata
Abstract
Self-determination is the right of a people to decide on its political destiny and is expressed. Any people who do not receive proper treatment within a state, when their rights are violated, can seek self-determination and self-government. Initially, the right to self-determination was proclaimed most clearly and accurately by the President of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson. Not only at the London Conference in 1913, but also during the Versailles Conference 1918-1920, Albanians did not benefit from the principle of self-determination. During World War II, the Allies made the principle of self-determination part of the Atlantic Charter (August 14, 1941). The clearest and most meaningful expression for Albanians, both from a legal and a historical point of view, was the Bujan Conference. This Conference, gathered the representatives of the Albanian people, where with their free will, they expressed and self-determined, the historical-ethnic, but also democratic rights, which belonged to the Albanians. After World War II, with the development of a new international system, the right to self-determination takes on a wider dimension. According to Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations, in addition to defining the right to self-determination of an international character. The right to self-determination is also enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Countries and Peoples Colonized in 1960, as well as the United Nations Protocols on Civil, Political and Economic, Cultural and Social Rights in 1966. The so-called Assembly of Prizren and its Resolution but especially the Yugoslav Constitution of 1946 are clear evidence that show that the right of self-determination was not exercised by Albanians. The autonomy of Kosovo would go towards complete legal and political annihilation with the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia of 1963. The Constitution of 1974 was an approach that gave the greatest possible autonomy to the republics, but this time also to the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Helsinki Final Act of 1975 also recognizes the observance of the principle of equality and self-determination of peoples. According to the case law of the International Court of Justice, the right to self-determination is a free expression of the will of the people, and that every ethnic group, not only within colonial states, but also within non-colonial (ie federal, unitary) states, has rights to express their will for self-determination.
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Pages:65-69
How to cite this article:
Sajmir Bata "The principle of self-determination and Kosovo Albanians". International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, Vol 8, Issue 12, 2021, Pages 65-69
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