Too often national identities do not correspond to the ethnic and linguistic nuclei that make up the diverse cultures corralled by state borders. This gives rise to serious internal conflicts, which are often, in turn, the sequel of wars and conquests.
However, the socio-political consciousness has evolved in recent centuries to give worldwide expression to fundamental principles recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed in 1948 by all States and Governments of the world. This consciousness is flowing into a new concept of supranational sovereignty, which in turn, recognizes the rights of ethnic minorities and their aspirations of representation.
In the XX century, the great powers allocated territories and permitted the creation of new states on the basis of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination. The Fourteen Points made by President Wilson in 1918 lead to the formation of a league of nations to protect "mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small nations alike”. The principles for the equitable distribution of territories formerly dominated by European empires were the driving force and the central element in this approach. Yet most of today's national and ethnic conflicts cannot be settled by a renewed revision of boundaries to give each national community a State of its own. Such is the complicated plight of the Kurds claiming self-rule in an area spreading through the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. But others ─Basques, Abkhazians, Chechens, Tibetans, etc.─ are vying for secession from larger States on account of a historical ethnic identity that they perceive as a right to national rule. Ethnic differences by themselves do not foster this tendency, but the group’s own psychological perceptions and preferences clashing with those of other politically dominant sectors of the country where they live.
- Hits: 10091