Self Determination and Southern Sudan - Assignment Example

Research Diary: Self Determination and Southern Sudan The rights of different s and people are properly amalgamated in the international laws. These rights are protected and properly formulated in order to eliminate the risk of depriving of a person or state from their legal rights. In the context of international laws, self determination is a legal right which denotes the right of people and states to exercise their right of autonomy over various decisions including the right to acquire or change nationality, exercise political rights and so on. The concept of self determination has been accepted by various legal authorities. It has also been protected by the United Nations charter. The concept of self determination has been changed significantly. Decolonization remains one of the key areas affected by the scope and principles of self determination. The right of self determination, however, is not easier to be implemented as it requires some major issues to be addressed and resolved. These issues include the right of minorities to self determination which may be different and require some major changes in the state’s affairs and laws. Southern Sudan appears as an example of facing such conflicting situation in implementing the concept of self determination during Naivasha Agreement 2005. This research diary aims to provide the reasons behind choosing this topic and the patterns followed in order to reach the conclusions made. It is a reflection of the processes and research methods undertaken in order to form an opinion on the application of the doctrine of self determination with a specific contextual reference to Southern Sudan and the 2005 Naivasha Agreement. The topic chosen for the essay is important for the people of Southern Sudan as well as the legal entities. The broad range of definitions available for self determination and the problems related to its application act as a hurdle for proper implementation of the legal doctrine of it. Knowing the importance of Naivasha agreement 2005 for the people and Southern Sudan, it is justifiable to believe that self determination and its application in this context greatly determines the future of the region and the people living in it. Self determination is the concept which provides or calls for the freedom, equality and liberty of people for their rights. The legal right of people and states to self determination and freedom are infringed if the applicability of the legal doctrine is not exercised due to some people’s beliefs or judgments. Hence, there was a need for a definite definition of self determination which could be applied for all the people of the state. The biased definitions and understanding led to chaos and difficulties during that period and to cope up with the problems, the need to reevaluate the legal doctrine was emphasized. The topic is chosen in order to highlight the issues of Southern Sudan during Navausha agreement and to analyze the situation with regard to the applicability of the self determination doctrine. Moreover, the paper provided useful information on the general problems associated with the concept of self determination and the different models which may be applied. In order to understand the concept of self determination and its contextual importance, application and issue with reference to Southern Sudan and the 2005 Naivasha Agreement different libraries and research materials have been employed. The understanding and in depth knowledge of self determination and information related to it was acquired from a number of research papers and other literature available on the topic. Different perspectives on the concept of self determination provided a deep understanding of what this term means and how it can be analyzed in different situations. The use of different articles and research data helps in making the information more credible and reliable. The different perspective about the topic and the explanation of related models (classical and secessionist models) provide the reader with the understanding about the topic and the helps in gaining firsthand knowledge about the differences that exist between the two models. Much research is adopted from credible educational publishers like oxford and Cambridge university publications. These publications, firstly, helped in making the research conducted credible, reliable and trustworthy. Secondly, these publications are extremely detailed papers which did not only provide a basic idea and understanding but developed a deep knowledge about the concepts relevant to my research paper. Moreover, reading these research papers maintained a level of competence and professionalism in my research paper as the flow of information and ideas are arranged in a logical manner. Proquest, EBSCO host and google scholar were the main libraries used online to acquire the resources collected to write this paper. The official website of United Nations has been used in order to gather original information on the resolutions passed. The use of this website is permissible and its content is reliable as the official website provides the original resolutions, information and events of United Nations. Other websites like OHCHR’s official website which is not affected by external information or manipulation are also used to shed the light on the topic from different perspectives. In order to develop the ideas and extend the debate “Transition from War to Peace” was accessed from upeace.org. The legislation discussed about or used in the research paper are all accessed and analyzed form the United Nation’s website and official websites of other legal entities like OHCHR and ILO. The essay does not only include research material but also involves personal judgment about the topic. The research material helped in developing the important concepts of self determination, legal issues related to it, Naivasha Agreement and the relevance of these to Southern Sudan. While researching for the essay, I came across different authors who influenced my writing style, thoughts, understanding of the matter and judgments about the situation of legal matters. The writing style, depth of thoughts, clarity of ideas and identification of important concepts found in Higgins’s paper were incredible. The writing excellence and rewarding techniques of proposing the information in words have been found in his work. The information about legal standards, their use and the mistakes which people make in interpreting them have been fully understood using this informative source. Higgins’s work may be appreciated for the relevance to the topic and the clarity of information. It provides the circumstances that challenged the existing legal framework of self determination in the post Cold War environment. This reading helped the most in understanding the theoretical grounds of legal issues related to self determination. This paper provides the basis of the research as it provides the starting point of the essay. Joshua Castellino is another author that influenced the thoughts and further improved the debate on the post Cold War environment and legal implications of the circumstances that arose. The opinion of Castellino about self determination in order to decolonize is simple yet interesting. Castellino refers to self determination as “all things to all men”. Hence, this idea about self determination becomes the basis of legal justifications about the rights and obligations of self judgment. The information retrieved from Weller’s work also had a deep impact on the essay. Weller’s excellent way of linking the problems associated with self determination and its legal principles to the existing situations of Southern Sudan during the Naivasha Agreement helped in maintaining the relevance of the essay to the topic chosen. Weller identifies the conflicts that exist on the legal grounds when implementing the concept of self determination. The conflicts mainly arise due to the expectations of ethnic groups who want to exercise their legal right of self determination and attain the freedom which they deserve. Weller’s discussion is of immense importance regarding the legal limitations of the concept under consideration. Other writers and information from official websites of UN and other organizations were also helpful but the basic understanding about self determination and issues surrounding this concept were gathered from these writers. Their writing style and professional vocabulary helped in maintaining the level of professionalism in the paper. The conceptual depth and reliability of information was of particular importance which influenced the thoughts and ideas surrounding the essay topic. There is always a need to properly plan the work in order to successfully and efficiently complete the work. In order to complete this paper, I planned my researching, reading and writing work separately. The researching and reading required more time as the writing process is dependent on the research and material read. The more carefully is the reading process done, the easier it gets to write on it. I started reading the information relevant to the essay from the guidebook of the course on Oct 12th 2010. The information from the guidebook was informative and useful in conducting the research as it provides the outline of the areas to be discussed in the essay. Higgins’s work was of great relevance to understand the implications of international law and problems and processes in understanding the concept of self determination. I carefully read it and other works like of Castellino, Weller, Osman, Koskenniemi and others. I also read the laws and legal dimensions in order to understand the application, problems and consequences of self determination on Southern Sudan. I spent the whole month reading and singling out the main points and concepts and finally wrote the research proposal on November 5th 2010. I extended the research reading material while polishing the proposal and writing a draft essay. The draft helped me in dividing the essay into different sections including introduction, the models of self determination and the legal basis for self determination, Naivasha agreement and the issues which arise regarding self determination under international law and the conclusion. I started writing the essay on December 1st 2010. The draft essay was polished and rewritten in order to accumulate the missing information along with the necessary changes in the structure of the essay. The jolted down points and key concepts gathered during reading and research period helped a lot in the writing phase of the essay. The review phase of writing the essay helped in correcting the grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes. It further helped in making the concluding statement more accurate as the reading of the whole paper enabled me to add key ideas which were not included in the concluding paragraph. The writing pattern which I followed was useful and efficient as the proper planning of work helped in successful completion of the essay according to the requirements. The importance of self determination and the issues related to it in the analysis of the application of the doctrine of self determination in the context of South Sudan with reference to the Naivasha Agreement in 2005 has accurately been determined. The essay provides a perfectly informative piece for others to gain information and understanding of the research topic. This research diary provides the basis for the essay and the procedure followed to reach the conclusion drawn. The essay simply provides a great deal of information on the application and doctrine of legal principles in the context of a particular region. Read More