Swiss expert: "National minorities are not supposed to have external self-determination"

Daniel Hogger, a well-known Swiss expert on international law, who wrote a thesis on the recognition of new states, analyzed the situation that is developing around Catalonia referendum in his article published in the Neue Züricher Zeitung. Hogger's remarks seem to be quite interesting for the Caucasus countries, since raised by him problem of the territorial integrity and the right of peoples to self-determination is also relevant for our region.

"If a mother country does not agree with a separation of its part, other states do not recognize this separation as well. For example, it happened during a separation of Crimea from Ukraine. But there is an exception, when the above mentioned principles of internal and external rights should be perceived as a consecutive dependence. If a national minority is refused the right to internal self-determination in a sharp, intensive form, while ignoring fundamental human rights, other states can recognize the right to external self-determination as an extreme measure, " the expert said.

"Kosovo's independence is an example of this measure. Although the Serbian government was against Kosovo's separation, a systematic suppression of Kosovo's population by Serbia in the 1990s forced Switzerland, along with other states, to recognize ultimately the legitimate separation of Kosovo from Serbia. In Catalonia, there is a contradiction between the demands for self-determination and right of the mother country to territorial integrity," Hogger writes. In his opinion, since Catalans are not considered a separate people, but a national minority, they are granted ‘’only’’ with the right to internal self-determination. ”External self-determination, which means the separation of Catalonia from Spain, contradicts the right of Spain to territorial integrity, which in the other states, is still a major priority,’’  Daniel Hogger emphasizes.

"As long as the Spanish state will allow and promote its language and culture as before, there is no reason to put the interests of Catalans above the interests of Spain and recognize Catalonia as an independent state. Only the consent of the Spanish state to the separation of Catalonia, or grave violations of human rights against the Catalan population, can legitimize the recognition of an independent Catalan state, " the Swiss expert summed up.