Legitimacy, constitutionality, lawfulness — A. Mahera, part 3 (25.08.2023)
The third conversation with Andrii Mahera. The key segment for the article is the right of a nation to self-determination under the UN Charter (1945) and the International Covenants on Human Rights (1966): no international treaty contains a clear legal definition of “nation”, and international law recognizes the priority of self-determination over territorial integrity only for colonial peoples. Mahera gives three reasons for the legal nullity of the 2014 “referendum” in Crimea: the absence of a subject (a nation) and of a right under the Constitution, the state of occupation, and the absence of a law on local referendums. A source for the article on the myth of an “unlawful” transfer of Crimea.
Key moments
- 01:56 The right of a nation to self-determination: the 1945 UN Charter and the 1966 covenants — no definition of "nation" in the treaties
- 03:34 The clash of self-determination and territorial integrity — priority only for colonial peoples
- 33:01 Three reasons why the 2014 "referendum" in Crimea was a legal nullity
- 44:58 The federal structure of Russia and the Russification of the indigenous peoples of the republics