ABSTRACT
From a legal and practical point of view, separation is never easy. On the one hand, there is the perceived need to support struggling minorities 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.
