Self-determination and the Middle East conflict

The right of self-determination is proclaimed in the two 1966 International Covenants on Human Rights: the one on Civil and Political Rights and the other on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. The right of self-determination of peoples is mentioned in the Charter of the United Nations in two places: in the list of the general purposes of the organization and in the provision relating to the specific purposes of the United Nations in the promotion of economic and social cooperation. In view of the general application of the right of self-determination under customary international law, such reassertion of the right in a specific instance is redundant, unless, of course, it is contested that a certain group may be regarded as a separate people entitled per se to self-determination. Self-determination also means that every people is entitled to determine freely its future course.