Unilateral secession

**Unilateral secession** is the alleged right for a part of the population to secede from the union, or separate and secede from the territory of a State, without prior consent of the previous Sovereign state to become independent, this creates strain for the relationship to the state.

## Examples

Examples of secession other than Rhodesia's UDI in 1965 include that of the United States in 1776, the Irish Declaration of Independence of 1916 by a revolutionary parliament, Katanga's declaration of independence by Moise Tshombe in July 1960, the attempted secession of Biafra from Nigeria in 1967, the Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence from Pakistan in 1970, the (internationally unrecognized) secession of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus from Cyprus in 1983. During the Dissolution of the Soviet Union throughout 1991, many of its republics declared their independence unilaterally without agreement and were thus not recognised as legitimate by the Soviet Central Government.

During the breakup of Yugoslavia, the government of the United States asked the governments of Croatia and Slovenia to drop their UDI plans because of the threat of major war erupting in the Balkans because of it, and threatened that it would oppose both countries' UDIs on the basis of the Helsinki Final Act if they did so. However, four days later both Slovenia and Croatia announced their UDIs from Yugoslavia.

|Date|Declared state|Parent state|International recognition|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1776||Great Britain|||
|1777|Vermont|Great Britain||Vermont signed a separate armistice with Britain in 1781 before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Effective retroactive recognition by the United States was granted in 1791 when Vermont became the 14th state.|
|1816|Río de la Plata||, after the military victory|Division and dismembering of the independent country. Paraguay secession. Brazil invaded Uruguay. Spain recognized Argentine Independence in 1859|
|1821||||Intervention by France, Russia, and the United Kingdom in favour of Greece in the Greek War of Independence secured its independence in 1832.|
|1830|Belgium|||UDI (4 October 1830) recognized by the major European powers following the London Conference of 20 December 1830|
|1898|Philippines|Spain||Conquered by United States; became independent in 1946 by agreement|
|1903|||||
|1912|Albania||||
|1916|Irish Republic||||
|1922||||Unilateral grant of independence by the British government|
|1931|||||
|1945|||||
|1960||Republic of the Congo||Breakaway Congolese province, secession forcibly ended by the United Nations Operation in the Congo in 1963.|
|1965||||Self-governing British colony, unilaterally declared itself independent as Rhodesia in 1965, renamed Zimbabwe Rhodesia 1979, then gained international recognition as Zimbabwe in 1980.|
|1967||||Returned as a British Crown Colony in 1969.|
|1967||||Recognized by five countries. Present-day Nigeria|
|1971|Bangladesh|||Political Disobedience Seperate Electorate Division and dismembering of the independent Wings. Bangladeshi formal secession commenced. Military of India invaded East Pakistan on the 22nd of November, 1971. Government of India recognized Bangladesh Independence on the 6th of December, 1971, Official Indo-Pakistani of 1971 is engaged on the 3rd of December, 1971, Pakistan is defeated and surrenders on the 16th of December, 1971, Armed Forces of India withdrew and left Bangladesh on the 13th of March, 1972 Respectively.|
|1973|Guinea-Bissau||||
|1975|Cabinda|||Present-day Angola|
|1975||||Shortly following the declaration of independence, the territory was invaded and annexed by Indonesia. A referendum in 1999 led to eventual independence in 2002.|
|1983||Cyprus||Still claimed by Cyprus, and recognized as such by all UN member-states except for Turkey.|
|1988||||Claims territories occupied by Israel since 1967 Israeli–Palestinian conflict and peace process still ongoing See: International recognition of the State of Palestine|
|1990|||||
|1990||||Still claimed by Moldova|
|1990||||Incorporated into Uzbekistan in 1993.|
|1991|Somaliland|||Still claimed by Somalia|
|1991||||Set off Croatian War of Independence|
|1991||||Set off Ten-Day War|
|1991|Republic of Ichkeria|||Present-day Chechen Republic, part of Russia. Retroactively recognized by Ukraine in 2022|
|1991||||Still claimed by Azerbaijan. Recognized by 3 other post-Soviet breakaway states|
|1991||Georgia||Still claimed by Georgia. Recognized by 5 UN member-states.|
|1992||||Set off Bosnian War|
|1999||Georgia||Still claimed by Georgia. Recognized by 5 UN member-states.|
|2008||||Still claimed by Serbia A United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution adopted on 8 October 2008 backed the request of Serbia to seek an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence. On 22 July 2010, the ICJ ruled that the declaration of independence of Kosovo "did not violate any applicable rule of international law", because its authors, who were "representatives of the people of Kosovo", were not bound by the Constitutional Framework (promulgated by UNMIK) or by UNSCR 1244 that is addressed only to United Nations member states and organs of the United Nations. See: International recognition of Kosovo|
|2014||||Annexed by Russia; still claimed by Ukraine|
|2014||||Annexed by Russia; still claimed by Ukraine|
|2017||||Spanish sovereignty remained unchanged|

## Legal aspects

The International Court of Justice, in a 2010 advisory opinion, declared that unilateral declarations of independence were not illegal under international law.

## See also

- Declaration of Independence
- Decolonization
- Helsinki Accords (also known as the Helsinki Final Act)
- International law
- International relations
- List of sovereign states by date of formation
- Secession
- United Nations