|
|
|
So, You Wanna Be a State?
Not long ago, a United Nations official reports, a man called seeking UN membership for the “state” of Utopia—a platform with ten inhabitants floating in the Pacific Ocean. He was one of almost three dozen leaders who in the last decade hoped to secure a quick dose of legitimacy for their fledgling “countries.”
Any community may claim statehood—even one adrift at sea—but that claim gains credibility only through international recognition, one country at a time. The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, based in the Hague, was founded in 1991 by 15 nations, including Crimea, Estonia, and Tibet, to help groups on the fringe of the international community voice their claims to self-determination. Fifty-two would-be states currently belong, including Abkhazia, Gagauzia, the Lakota Nation, and Zanzibar.
Although there is no surefire way for a nation to earn statehood, most groups—Utopia included, apparently—view UN membership as tantamount to international recognition, even though, as former secretary-general Trygve Lie said in March 1950, the United Nations “does not possess any authority to recognize either a new State or a new government of an existing State,” or require its members to recognize all other states.
A state looking to join the United Nations must apply to the secretary-general and pledge to uphold the UN Charter. The secretariat’s legal affairs department verifies that the applicant possesses the characteristics of a state—a defined territory, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to conduct international relations—and routes the application to the Security Council’s Committee on the Admission of New Members. The committee discusses the merits of the application—for example, whether the state is “peace-loving,” or whether it is willing and able to fulfill its charter obligations.
The process can be politically charged. Like all matters before the Security Council, a recommendation for admission needs to clear all five permanent council members—a deal breaker for many would-be states. That arrangement led to regular blackballing during the Cold War. Even today, it is widely acknowledged that Taiwan, which China regards as a “renegade province,” will never be approved for membership by the Security Council, no matter how qualified it is for statehood. Nevertheless, the Security Council Committee on the Admission of New Members has worked on a consensual basis, ensuring that no state recommended for membership has elicited any objections in the Security Council over the past ten years.
If a state is approved, the Security Council submits a resolution recommending admission to the General Assembly for a vote—a two-thirds majority secures admission. Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992), Eritrea (1993), and Palau (1994) are among the UN’s newest members.
Utopia has not fared as well. According to an official from the Committee on the Admission of New Members, its application was not considered because no other state had recognized it.
—FP