The Right to Self-Determination Under International Law and Politics

The author, Hassan Hamdam is a Baloch poet and literary person. He got his master's degree in human rights and social justice (in international legal norms) from the London Metropolitan University. From the college days, he was involved in the Baloch national struggle as a student activist. In 2000, he fled from Balochistan and sought asylum in the United Kingdom. Since 2008, he has been affiliated with Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) and been campaigning to highlight the human rights violations in Balochistan perpetrated by the Iranian and Pakistani states. Presently, he is the vice-president of BHRC and is based in London.

The emergence of the right to self-determination phenomenon during the twentieth century changed the political map of the world with the liberation of many nations from the yoke of colonialism. This book is an attempt to navigate the right of self-determination through international legal norms and explore its triumph and failure since the Second World War. It elaborates on the role, position, and the obligations of a modern state in the international law and new emerging relations of people in the world. The bookdescribes briefly the history of British rule in the Indian subcontinent and the creation of the new Muslim state of Pakistan in 1947. The book narrates the events leading to the occupation of Balochistan by Pakistan in 1948. It highlights the long struggle of the Baloch people for the right to self-determination and to explain the right of the Baloch people according to the international principles and provide political and legal methods for the right to self-determination.