ABSTRACT
FROM a legal and practical point of view, separation is never easy. Onthe one hand, there is the perceived need to support struggling mi-norities who demand self determination as an inalienable right. This impulse is demonstrated by the fundamental role of the 1947 UN Human Rights Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, associated with the post-Second World War decolonization process. Occasionally, this and other UN declarations of self-determination are cited as support for a minority’s claims about historical injustice or threats to identity.1 On the other hand, there are the legal, theoretical, and practical imperatives of maintaining a functioning state-based international system, which require reasonably coherent and stable nations.
