The UNPO has submitted a response to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development’s (EMTRD) call for input on ‘Peace and Security and the Right to Development,’ urging the EMTRD to recognise self-determination as a central condition for durable peace and the genuine realisation of the right to development.
For unrepresented nations and peoples, peace and development cannot be realised where communities are excluded from the decision-making processes that shape their lands, resources, governance systems, and futures. In this context, self-determination is a practical and necessary framework through which peoples can exercise meaningful authority over their political, economic, social, and cultural development. Where that authority is denied, peace and development initiatives risk addressing symptoms rather than cause, leaving the structural drivers of instability intact and obstructing the full realisation of the right to development.
The right to development and self-determination are deeply intertwined. Self-determination is affirmed within the Declaration on the Right to Development, enabling people to determine their own destiny and exercise meaningful growth in decisions that shape their development. As UNPO Member experiences such as West Papua, Balochistan, the Niger Delta and Ogoniland, and the Hmong demonstrate, denying peoples such authority undermines the right to development at its core by excluding communities from decisions that shape their futures while leaving their needs and priorities unaddressed. In denying these rights, grievances deepen, marginalisation becomes entrenched, and instability is sustained, creating structural barriers to peace and obstructing the genuine realisation of development.
The submission also highlights that peace processes remain ineffective in practice when their design and implementation prioritises state actors over the peoples who hold the right to self-determination and development. Drawing on Member experiences such as the Acheh, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and Somaliland, the UNPO stresses that where instability is rooted in exclusion, marginalisation, and inequitable resource governance, initiatives that fail to address these underlying conditions do not resolve conflict, but perpetuate it. Sustainable peace and development therefore depends on approaches that are genuinely inclusive, grounded in the realities and aspirations of the peoples concerned, and rooted in respect for affected communities as rights-holders with meaningful authority over their futures.
Limitations of the current international legal framework reinforce this reality. Peace and development frameworks remain overly state-centric and procedural, affording consultation to affected peoples without granting meaningful influence over the decisions that shape their lives. Compounding this issue, self-determination is often mischaracterised as synonymous with secession rather than being understood as a right of process, participation, and legitimate governance. These narrow approaches obscure self-determination as a right of process that can function as a mechanism for fostering conditions of legitimacy, inclusion, justice, and sustainable governance – essential for durable peace and development.
Addressing these limitations requires integrating self-determination as a critical mechanism within peace, security, and development frameworks so they are capable of addressing the differentiated ways in which instability affects communities, while strengthening the participatory and equitable vision of development at the core of the right.
In light of these findings, the UNPO made the following recommendations to the EMTRD:
- Recognise self-determination as a central operational pillar to the right to development within peace and security frameworks
- Promote differentiated and intersectional approaches to the right to development
- Ensure that participation in peace, security, and development frameworks is substantive rather than procedural
- Clearly define and operationalise the role of non-state actors in advancing self-determination within peace, security, and development frameworks
- Encourage international and regional organisations to align peace, security, and development initiatives with self-determination and inclusive governance principles
