(2018) 2 African Human Rights Yearbook 51 Declaration on Principles of International Law7 refers to the colonial situation and goes further to note that the subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a violation of the right to self-determination. In Europe, the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 refers in clause VIII to the principle of equal rights and selfdetermination and provides that All peoples have the right, in full freedom, to determine, when and as they wish, their internal and external political status, without external interference, and to pursue as they wish their political, economic, social and cultural development.8 The African Charter proclaims in article 20 that ‘[a]ll peoples shall have the right to existence. They shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination’ and, further, that ‘colonized or oppressed peoples shall have the right to free themselves from the bonds of domination by resorting to any means recognized by the international community.’ The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples9 states in article 3 that ‘Indigenous peoples have a right to selfdetermination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.’ The Declaration also affirms that indigenous peoples have the rights to autonomy and self-government, culture, traditional knowledge, development, education, social services, the environment, and ownership of traditional lands and natural resources. Self-determination may be claimed by the people of a country as a whole or by a section of it, whether in a colonial or non-colonial context. Minorities or majorities within a state may avail themselves of that right to assert internal self-determination by way of majority rule or a form of autonomy, including the right to freely determine the political regime of their choice and to democratically elect their political leaders without foreign interference.10 This variant of self-determination fuses with the principle of constitutional autonomy of the state and it has practically been hijacked by the state.11 Internal self-determination does not conflict with the principle of territorial integrity and is hardly a contentious matter. 7 8 9 10 11 UN General Assembly ‘Declaration on principles of international law concerning friendly relations and co-operation among states in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations’ UNGA Res 2625 (XXV) 24 October 1970 A/RES/25/2625. Clause VIII of the Helsinki Final Act. UN General Assembly ‘United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ UNGA Res 61/295 13 September 2007 A/RES/61/295. In Sudan Human Rights Organisation and Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions (COHRE) v Sudan (2009) AHRLR 153 (ACHPR 2009) (Darfur case), the African Commission clarified that in ‘some cases groups of “a people” might be a majority or a minority in a particular state.’ para 220; Compare sec 235 of the 1996 Constitution of South Africa which explicitly provides for self-determination in these terms: ‘The right of the South African people as a whole to selfdetermination, as manifested in this Constitution, does not preclude, within the framework of this right, recognition of the notion of the right of selfdetermination of any community sharing a common cultural and language heritage, within a territorial entity in the Republic or in any other way, determined by national legislation’. A Pellet ‘Un principe confisqué: le droit des peuples à disposer d’eux-mêmes’ (1980) Revue juridique périodique internationale et de la coopération; NQ Dihn, P Daillier & A Pellet Droit international public (1980) 427.