the right of a people to self-determination is now so widely recognized in

international conventions that the principle has acquired a status beyond

convention and is considered a general principle of international law.

(ii) Scope of the Right to Self-determination

126. The recognized sources of international law establish that
the right to self-determination of a people is normally fulfilled
through internal self-determination a peoples pursuit of its
political, economic, social and cultural development within the
framework of an existing state. A right to external self-
determination (which in this case potentially takes the form of the
assertion of a right to unilateral secession) arises in only the most
extreme of cases and, even then, under carefully defined
circumstances. x x x

External self-determination can be defined as in the following
statement from the Declaration on Friendly Relations, supra, as

The establishment of a sovereign and independent State, the free
association or integration with an independent State or the
emergence into any other political status freely determined by
a people constitute modes of implementing the right of self-
determination by that people. (Emphasis added)


x x x x (Emphasis, italics and underscoring supplied)


The Canadian Court went on to discuss the exceptional cases in which the
right to external self-determination can arise, namely, where a people is under
colonial rule, is subject to foreign domination or exploitation outside a colonial
context, and less definitely but asserted by a number of commentators is
blocked from the meaningful exercise of its right to internal self-determination

(United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples )The
Declaration clearly recognized the right of indigenous peoples to self-
determination, encompassing the right to autonomy or self-government, to wit:

Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination,
have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to
their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for
financing their autonomous functions.

Article 5

Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their
distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while
retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political,
economic, social and cultural life of the State.


Self-government, as used in international legal discourse pertaining to
indigenous peoples, has been understood as equivalent to internal self-
determination.
[166]