Introduction | An important node
The Russia-Ukraine war began to break out in 2022, which once again brought a huge and far-reaching impact on the existing international order. Behind the great power game is the hope of people in some regions to win independence for themselves. However, how is a country born?
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On the evening of December 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order recognizing the "Donetsk People's Republic" and the "Luhansk People's Republic" established by the eastern Ukrainian civil armed forces. Republic" and ordered the Russian military to provide "peace guarantee" to these two areas.
On the morning of December 24, Putin gave a speech and decided to launch a special military operation in the Donbass region.
The outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war has aroused great concern from the international community. During the outbreak of this war, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order recognizing the "Donetsk People's Republic" and the "Luhansk People's Republic", which was an important node. Why does the behavior of
have special significance? What does it mean for a sovereign country to recognize another new country? What is the process for the international community to identify a sovereign country?
That is, how is a country born?
01 The recognition of the United Nations is the key
When talking about the nature of a country, what cannot be avoided is Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States), referred to as the "Montevideo Convention". This is an international convention signed on December 26, 1933 in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, during the Seventh International Conference of American States. The Monteverde Convention came into effect on December 26, 1934, and was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on January 8, 1936. Parts of the Monteverde Convention regarding the founding declaration have become part of customary international law. It states that a country includes these elements:
- Fixed population
- Established national borders
- Government
- The ability to develop relations with other countries
Viewed by this standard, an interesting entity, The Knights of Malta is not considered Accepted by the international community as a state, but only as a sovereign entity. The Order of Malta has no territory or national borders. Its headquarters is located in Rome, Italy, and owns two buildings with extraterritoriality : 68 Via Condotti in Rome, a building covering an area of 0.012 square kilometers, the Malta Palace, and Rome malta department on the outskirts of the aventino hills.
From a more understandable perspective, whether it can enter the United Nations and have a membership seat is generally a sign of proving whether it has become a sovereign country. This also proves that its status as a sovereign country has been accepted by the international community. .
How to join the United Nations and become a member state is clearly listed in Chapter 2, Article 4 of the Charter of the United Nations:
1. All other peace-loving countries that accept the obligations contained in this Charter shall, in the opinion of the Organization, Those who are truly able and willing to fulfill this obligation may be members of the United Nations.
2. Admitting the above-mentioned countries to become members of the United Nations will be implemented by resolution of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. One of the clear thresholds for
is that it needs to be recommended by the Security Council, and the five permanent members of the Security Council (China, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Russia) have one-vote among them.
The great power game is all in it.
, such as " Palestine ", is well-known to the world for its entanglements with Israel, but it is still not a member of the United Nations and is only a "United Nations observer member". In September 2015, although 136 full UN member states (accounting for 70.5% of the total UN member states) recognized the State of Palestine as an independent state, Palestine is currently unable to become a full UN member state due to strong opposition from the United States and Israel. .
The latest country to become a member of the United Nations is South Sudan in Africa. South Sudan originally belonged to Sudan . During years of civil war, Sudan was split into two regions, north and south. In 2011, South Sudan held an independence referendum. Preliminary vote counts released on January 30, 2011 showed that 98.83% of those who participated in the referendum supported independence. The next day, Sudan's Vice President acknowledged the referendum results. On July 9, 2011, the President of Sudan announced the official recognition of the Republic of South Sudan, and South Sudan officially became the 54th country in Africa. On July 14, 2011, the 65th United Nations General Assembly New York local time on July 14, unanimously adopted a resolution by acclamation to formally admit the Republic of South Sudan as the 193rd member state of the United Nations.
Looking at the path to the founding of South Sudan, the general steps are: war-independence referendum-referendum results announced-recognition of its sovereign state status by an independent country-accepted by the United Nations.
Although the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine also voted in referendums, Ukraine does not accept or recognize their sovereign state status, and the United Nations does not accept the "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic". Republic". In other words, these two so-called "countries" are currently recognized only by themselves and Russia.
And if you sort out the time when the member states joined the United Nations, it is actually quite interesting.
02 The increase and decrease in the membership of the United Nations: a microcosm of contemporary world history
When the United Nations was established in 1945, there were 51 founding member states. Between 1946 and 1950, the number of United Nations member states grew at a rate of one each year. In one year, 1955, 16 new member states were added, most of which were developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In this year, our Premier Zhou Enlai attended the Bandung Conference and proposed the policy of "seeking common ground while reserving differences".
In 1960, 17 countries joined the United Nations, all of them African countries. This year is known as the "Year of African Independence".
and In just three years from 1991 to 1993, 26 countries joined the United Nations. Because, the Soviet Union disintegrated . What is surprising is that North Korea and South Korea also joined the United Nations during this time period - 1991. Another pair of divided fraternal countries, West Germany and East Germany, joined the United Nations as early as 1973.
and the well-known Swiss actually joined the United Nations as late as 2002.
The United Nations was established after World War II. The world order maintained was also established by World War II. The increase and succession of its member states actually reflects the evolution of the entire international order after World War II.
In this process, many countries were established through independence referendums. And what exactly is this “independence referendum”?
03 Independence Referendum: Interesting Facts, Dreams and Prices
Wikipedia explains the meaning of "Independence Referendum": An independence referendum is a vote held by the residents of an area to decide whether to become an independent territory. It mostly stems from factors of national self-determination. . A successful independence referendum may or may not result in independence, depending on political factors other than the consensus outcome of the territory concerned.
Whether a country born through an independence referendum is truly accepted by the international community basically depends on three factors:
- Whether the majority of voters are in favor of independence
- whether it achieves substantial autonomy and independence from the original ruling country
- whether it has the support of the original central government If it is admitted that
is divided according to these three elements, there will basically be the following situations:
is successfully independent. To look at a more recent example, it is the independence referendum of East Timor from Indonesia . Its status as a sovereign state is accepted by the international community, and it joined the United Nations as a member state in 2002.
was successfully elected, but in fact it did not gain independence, and the original central government did not recognize it. For example, the Catalonia region in Spain has had an independent trend for many years (Barcelona is located in this region. Once its independence is successful, will Barcelona still participate in La Liga?). Its independence referendum process has been bumpy. On October 1, 2017, the Catalan government held an independence referendum and passed it without the permission of the Spanish government. However, it did not immediately declare statehood after the referendum results were released. After weeks of disputes and mediation between Catalonia and Spain, the Catalan Parliament officially passed the "statehood vote" by a large majority on the 27th of the same month, declaring independence from Spain and naming the country " "Republic of Catalonia"; on the other hand, about half an hour after the vote was passed, the Spanish Senate voted to pass Prime Minister Rajoy's proposal to freeze Catalonia's autonomy in accordance with Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution. , dissolve and take over the Catalan government.
was successfully voted, which essentially formed an independent region, but the original central government did not recognize its independence. For example, , South Ossetia . South Ossetia is a region of Georgia , and its path to independence has also been deeply entangled with Russia. South Ossetia declared independence during the conflict with Georgia in the 1990s and established the Republic of South Ossetia. However, it was not recognized by the United Nations and most international countries. However, after the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, Russia recognized South Ossetia. Seti is a country and has diplomatic relations with it. On April 9, 2017, the Republic of South Ossetia held a referendum on changing its name to " Republic of South Ossetia- Alan State" (referred to as South Ossetia-Alan) to commemorate the Kingdom of Alan established by the Alan people. . The results of the vote showed that about 78% of voters were in favor and 20% were against it. Currently, it is essentially an independent region, but its statehood is not recognized by Georgia. At present, most countries in the world have not recognized its status as a sovereign state, and it has not joined the United Nations.
was unsuccessful in voting, and it did not form an independent region, but the original central government recognized its independence. The situation of is the most interesting, and what is even more interesting is such a place- Puerto Rico . Puerto Rico is located in Central America , including a main island and several small islands, very close to the United States. Its political position is that of an "unincorporated territory" of the United States. Puerto Rico has held four referendums to determine its political status in 1967, 1993, 1998, and 2012. Each time, very few people voted for independence, and it did not form an independent region. However, each time, the United States recognized its independence. status. In other words, Puerto Rico wants to become the "51st state" of the United States every time it votes, but the United States does not accept it.
In fact, every country that can truly vote for an independence referendum does not have smooth sailing. As mentioned above, East Timor became independent from Portugal on November 28, 1975, and established the Democratic Republic of East Timor. However, it was invaded and occupied by Indonesia nine days later, and became the East Timor Province of Indonesia in July 1976. Over the next 20 years, East Timor continued its war of independence against Indonesia. According to statistics, this process resulted in the deaths of 100,000 to 250,000 people. On August 30, 1999, under the supervision of the United Nations, East Timor held a referendum, and the vast majority of East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia.The East Timor militia formed by the Indonesian military and anti-East Timor independence activists immediately launched a large-scale scorched earth campaign in retaliation. Approximately 1,400 East Timorese were killed and 300,000 people were forcibly expelled to West Timor as refugees. Most of the country's infrastructure (including homes, irrigation systems, water systems, schools, power grids, etc.) was almost 100% destroyed. On September 20, 1999, the military operations in Indonesia ended only after the intervention of international forces led by Australia. After being managed by the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor for about two and a half years, East Timor officially regained its independence at 0:00 on May 20, 2002. The country was named the Democratic Republic of East Timor and became an internationally recognized independent country.
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On the evening of December 24, according to Global.com quoted Agence France-Presse news, the Ukrainian border guards said that Russian troops broke into the Kiev region of Ukraine.
No matter what, the people are the ones who suffer when war breaks out. I hope the war will end soon and peace will last forever.
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