국제인권규약상 자결권의 의미에 관한 소고

The right to self-determination is one of the controversial concepts in international law. There is no doubt that respect for the right to self-determination constitutes one of the fundamental principles of international law. However, there are still unclear points about the meaning of the right to self-determination in that/in terms of what is the definition of self-determination, and who are the subject of that right, what is the content and the forms for realization of that right is. In particular, when the right to self-determination is claimed outside the context of colonialism, it increases its indeterminacy on its content and the scope for application. As the two main international human rights covenants, namely, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, stipulated the right to self-determination in their common Article 1, the right to self-determination confirms its importance as an essential condition for the effective guarantee and observance of other individual human rights. Since then, the importance of the right to self-determination has been continuously emphasized and developed through various international documents. The question arises why the right to self-determination remains as the most political and controversial norm in international law despite the right has been stated in various documents? What is the meaning of the right to self-determination stipulated in the International Conventions on Human Rights? The purpose of this article is to examine the meaning of the right to self-determination as stipulated in the common Article of the two international human rights covenants, and to understand the controversial points around the right to self-determination, through the analysis of the travaux preparatoires and the Committee’s practices. Another purpose of this article is to discuss the reason why the right to self-determination has been intentionally broadly framed, while there is no way to clarify the meaning of the right to self-termination. To this end, this article examines the development and features of the right to self-determination (II) and the meaning and the scope of peoples as the subject of the right to self-determination (III). It furthers to examine the content and the forms of the right to self-determination (IV); and the obligations upon the State party to respect and to promote its realization (V). In the conclusion, considering the points where the controversy arises, it discusses inherent limitations to provide the concrete definition of the right to self-determination.