Edmond Jouve

in Peuples/Popoli/Peoples/Pueblos, n. 8 (October 1986)

The rights of peoples have not been invented, as is sometimes believed, in recent years. On 4 July 1776, the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America established the people as the actors of their own history. It states that “when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political ties which unite them with another, and to take, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal place to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, respect due to the opinion of mankind obliges him to declare the causes which determine his separation.” This is the proclamation of what would later be called the right to external self-determination, and which was expressly enshrined in the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples on 14 December 1960.
In France, the rights of the people will germinate in the revolutionary soil. Essentially, the emphasis is on the freedom and sovereignty of the people. The Jacobin Constitution of 24 June 1793 even stipulates, in Article 35, that “when the Government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties”. Abbé Grégoire, in his draft Declaration of the Rights of Peoples (4 Floréal Year II), laid down the principle – which has lost none of its topicality – that “whatever the number of individuals who make them up and the extent of the territory they occupy, … the peoples are respectively independent and sovereign”.
These ideas were so successful that the French revolution of 1848 led to an explosion of nationalities, which in turn led to what was called the “springtime of the peoples”. A few years later, Marx popularised the idea that a people that oppresses other peoples cannot be free. The Russian Revolution went further. On 2 November 1917, the Soviet of People’s Commissars adopted a Declaration of the Peoples of Russia, which set out the rights of the peoples of Russia: equality and sovereignty, the right to self-determination, and the free development of national minorities and ethnic groups.
The two world conflicts brought the rights of peoples back to the forefront. However, the right of peoples to self-determination was not enshrined in the League of Nations Covenant. The same cannot be said of the United Nations Charter, whose preamble opens with the words: “We the peoples of the United Nations…”. According to its Article 1, the UN is given the mission to “develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples”. The Charter, however, did not draw all the consequences from these provisions. Subsequently, a law of decolonisation, resulting from the practice of the United Nations, will complete this text. It will allow the development of the rights of peoples.
Sovereignty will be considered as the first of these rights. The UN even considers, in Resolution 637 (VII) of 16 December 1952, that the right of peoples and nations to self-determination is “a precondition for the enjoyment of all fundamental human rights”. Since then, this requirement has been constantly reaffirmed. This deepening has gone hand in hand with a certain broadening. Other rights have come into being: those that have been called “third generation” rights or solidarity rights. These rights have been given their due, in particular the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples, which states (Article 12): “Economic rights … must be exercised in a spirit of solidarity among the peoples of the world and with due regard for their respective interests”, and (Article 18): “All peoples must take into account the need to co-ordinate the requirements of their economic development with those of solidarity among all the peoples of the world”. Later, in 1981, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights itself echoed this principle. Article 29 states: “The principle of solidarity and friendly relations implicitly affirmed by the Charter of the United Nations and reaffirmed by the Organisation of African Unity shall govern relations between States.
The rights of peoples today therefore seem to hinge on the notions of sovereignty and solidarity. Article 1 of the Covenants adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966 states: “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Thus, the principle of self-determination permeates the rights of peoples. It is the pivot of collective rights. It makes peoples the holders of political rights (the right to freely determine their international status and their internal political status), economic rights (essentially, the right of peoples to freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources), cultural rights and social rights.
As important as the rights that amount to peoples’ sovereignty are, they do not constitute the totality of peoples’ rights. Another component is solidarity rights. They allow peoples to claim, in particular, rights to development, peace, security, communication and a healthy environment.
The rights of peoples are therefore both ancient and diverse. One of the merits of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples, adopted in Algiers in 1976, was to bring them together in a single, solemn text.

Jouve, Edmond
in: Peuples/Popoli/Peoples/Pueblos, n. 8 (October 1986)