UN General Assembly
1991

A central question will be to define what entity can be the beneficiary of the right to self-determination. Several methods have been discussed in the past. It might be sufficient to establish the minimum size of the area and population involved. Setting this minimum size very low would have two important advantages! First, minorities that asked for self-determination would consequently have to grant the same rights to their own minorities; experience shows us that they arc at times unwilling to do so, which can be the cause of new problems. Secondly, a low minimum size would, in my opinion, lead to a decentralization rather than to a break-up of the present States, because for small groups and areas independence will not always be the best solution. For a modern State decentralization has political and economic advantages. Decentralization is certainly one of the key elements for the prosperity and political stability of Switzerland, a country without natural resources and a population with four languages, various religions and many political parties.