2.6 Right to Self-Determination

The common Article 1 of both Covenants: all peoples have the right of self-determination — by virtue of which they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. The two faces:internal self-determination (participation, autonomy, self-governance within the state — the federalism connection) and external self-determination (independence — the decolonisation engine, the remedial secession debate). The tensions: territorial integrity vs peoples' rights (the UN Charter's Art 2(4) vs the Covenants' Art 1); the "peoples" definition; the indigenous peoples' autonomy claims (U2.7). Nepal's stakes: the federalism as internal self-determination's institutionalisation (the provinces-and-localities' self-rule — Constitutional Law's terrain); the historical zone-of-peace and the treaty-review clauses (Arts 5, 50(4), 51(13) — the verified foreign-policy anchors).