@article{Ouellet:319821,
      recid = {319821},
      author = {Ouellet, André-Philippe},
      title = {Decolonisation and self-determination à géométrie variable  the forgotten vicissitudes of Post-Soviet peoples},
      address = {2023},
      number = {ARTICLE},
      abstract = {All peoples have the right to self-determination.  Notwithstanding, the mainstream definition of people posits  there are only two types of peoples: those already  constituted as States and colonial peoples inhabiting  non-self-governing territories. Under this definition,  peoples are colonial when separated by sea from their  metropolis. Far from neutral, this definition has  historically advantaged land powers, e. g., China, the  United States, and Russia/The Soviet Union (USSR), since  the territories they conquered and annexed never underwent  a decolonisation process. On the one hand, this article  analyses the situation of the former constitutive USSR  republics to show they should have been characterised as  colonies under international law. Accordingly, this article  reviews the main approaches relating to self-determination  and decolonisation and demonstrates that, based on existing  United Nations (UN) legal instruments and State practice,  land-connected territories could also be considered  colonies since the decisive criterion remains the  domination of a people over another people. Indeed, most  Soviet peoples were conquered by Tsarist Russia, and, to  varying degrees, all had the attributes of colonies. This  double standard exemplifies how far off mainstream  conceptualisations of self-determination are. For instance,  English, French, or Portuguese colonies achieved  independence with the help of the UN, while Central Asian  Soviet peoples could not. On the other hand, as the  international community, save for certain countries, failed  to recognise former Soviet republics were colonies, the  article builds on the practice of their peoples to evince  the scope of self-determination beyond decolonisation.  Indeed, at the moment of becoming independent, formerly  communist peoples justified their accession to independence  based on the right of peoples to self-determination. In  turn, many States recognised self-determination was at  stake during the 1990s wave of independence, which prompted  international recognition. All in all, this article  constitutes a call for coherence vis-à-vis  self-determination, seeing that peoples are the  beneficiaries of the right to self-determination. The  international community must be careful not to let States  instrumentalise self-determination and take away this right  from peoples. Russia’s instrumentalisation of  self-determination in Crimea is a tragic reminder of the  continuing relevance of such a call.},
      url = {http://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/319821},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.3790/gyil.2024.373904},
}