Self-determination, minority rights and oppression : a Chinese Tibetan perspective

Abstract

The purpose of the thesis is to identify why Tibet has been unable to achieve the independence or self-determination it seeks while, at the same time, more than fifty years after the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Tibet Question remains unresolved. In conducting an examination of the legal theory of self-determination and its limitations, in an analysis incorporating legal norms of sovereignty and territorial integrity and also human rights, further objectives are to find out how the international legal system and the legal theory on which it is premised have impacted on the relationship between China and Tibet. The thesis in addition considers the implications for international law of the failure of the international community to resolve the Tibet issue in a rapidly changing world where the principle of external self-determination is seen to be extending its reach and what has been perceived as a bar on unilateral secession is called into question. Current theories and developments with respect to self-determination are considered, against a subtext of political realism, as is the extent of human rights abuses in Tibet. I conclude the thesis with an assessmentth at Tibet needst o refocus its claims with referencet o self-determination to take advantage of potential reconfiguration of the law resulting from developments in the proposed Kosovo Status Settlement, together also with an assessment of the pressures on international law arising not only from the long-standing and presently unresolved Tibet Question but also from the dynamism evinced in the theory of selfdetermination particularly with reference to the ongoing situation in Kosovo.