The World's Modern Autonomy Systems
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2 The concepT of poliTical auTonomy Thomas Benedikter The World‘s Modern Autonomy Systems Concepts and Experiences of Regional Territorial Autonomy 1 The World’s Modern Autonomy Systems Institute of Minority Rights Concepts and Experiences of Regional Territorial EURAC Research Autonomy Viale Druso/Drususallee 1 I – 39100 Bolzano/Bozen Bozen/Bolzano, 2009 Email: [email protected] This study was written for the European Academy of A second version of this work is available in German Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC; www.eurac.edu), Institute for language: Minority Rights, in the frame of the project Europe- Thomas Benedikter South Asia Exchange on Supranational (Regional) Autonomien der Welt – Eine Einführung in die Policies and Instruments for the Promotion of Human Regionalautonomien der Welt mit vergleichender Rights and the Management of Minority Issues Analyse, ATHESIA, Bozen 2007 (EURASIA-Net) (FP7). ISBN 978-88-8266-479-4 www.athesiabuch.it The first edition of this publication has been released [email protected] in India in 2007 under the title „The World‘s Working Regional Autonomies“ by ANTHEM PRESS, www. This work is dedicated to my father, Alfons Benedikter anthempress.com (born in 1918), who for most of his life gave his all for C-49 Kalkaji, New Delhi 110019, India autonomy and self-determination in South Tyrol. 75-76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK 244 Madison Ave. #116, New York, NY 10016, USA Edited by Copyright © EURAC 2009 This edition is published in collaboration with the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group GC 45, Sector 3, Salt Lake, Kolkata-700106, India. Author: Thomas Benedikter Proofreader: Matthew Isom Lay-out: Hanna Battisti and Thomas Benedikter Cover design: Hanna Battisti The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. 1 3 5 7 9 1 0 8 6 4 2 ISBN-13: 978 1 84331 730 2 (Pbk) The publishers encourage dissemination of this publication and would be happy to grant permission. 2 Requests have to be sent to: TABLE OF CONTENT PREFACE by Ranabir Samaddar and Joseph Marko....................................................... 7 Part 1: INTRODUCTION Solving ethnic conflict through self-government........................................................... 9 Part 2: THE CONCEPT OF POLITICAL AUTONOMY ....................................... 12 2.1 Power-sharing in the modern state ...................................................................... 13 2.2 What is political autonomy? ................................................................................ 18 2.3 The history of political autonomy ........................................................................ 28 2.4 The legal basis of territorial autonomy................................................................. 33 2.5 Diverse forms of autonomy ................................................................................. 38 2.6 Procedures and fundamental rights within an autonomy...................................... 42 2.7 The institutional framework and scope of autonomy............................................ 49 2.8 Advantages of autonomy....................................................................................... 54 2.9 Objections to and limits of autonomy .................................................................. 56 2.10 Basic criteria to determine genuine autonomies.................................................. 60 The list of working territorial autonomies 65 Part 3: TERRITORIAL AUTONOMIES AT WORK ........................................... 66 3.1 South Tyrol and Italy’s autonomous regions ........................................................ 67 3.2 Spain: A ‘state of autonomies’ - The Basque Country and Catalonia.................. 82 3.3 Autonomy in the United Kingdom ....................................................................... 95 3.4 The Åland Islands (Finland) ................................................................................. 107 3.5 The Faroe Islands and Greenland (Denmark) ...................................................... 113 3.6 The German Community in Belgium .................................................................... 119 3.7 Moldova’s autonomous region: Gagauzia ............................................................ 122 3.8 The Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine) ................................................... 130 3.9 Serbia‘s Vojvodina................................................................................................. 135 3.10 The Netherlands Antilles ...................................................................................... 137 3.11 The Azores and Madeira (Portugal) ...................................................................... 140 3.12 Autonomy in Canada: Nunavut ............................................................................ 143 3.13 Nicaragua’s Autonomous Atlantic Region ............................................................ 148 3.14 Panama’s Comarca Kuna Yala .............................................................................. 155 3.15 Zanzibar and Tanzania ........................................................................................ 159 3.16 The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (Philippines)................................... 163 3.17 Bougainville and Papua New Guinea ................................................................... 168 3.18 Aceh in Indonesia ................................................................................................ 171 3.19 New Caledonia and French Polynesia (France) ..................................................... 176 3.20 India’s district autonomies.................................................................................... 180 3 Part 4: SPECIAL FORMS OF AUTONOMY...................................................... 188 4.1 Autonomy in Russia and the example of Tatarstan................................................. 189 4.2 Puerto Rico and the USA – Free association versus territorial autonomy................ 196 4.3 America’s reservations for indigenous peoples...................................................... 202 4.4 ‚Autonomy‘ in the People’s Republic of China......................................................... 212 4.5 Autonomy as a transitional solution for self-determination conflicts: the case of South Sudan........................................................................................ 222 4.6 Autonomy-like arrangements of territorial power sharing....................................... 229 Part 5: CONCLUSIONS................................................................................ 236 5.1 Experiences with territorial autonomy – An overview............................................. 237 5.2 The minimum standard of territorial autonomy...................................................... 242 5.3 Functional elements of territorial autonomy.......................................................... 248 5.4 Factors of success of territorial autonomy and crucial lessons............................. 251 5.5 Autonomy as a solution to open ethnic conflicts................................................... 255 Part 6: OUTLOOK - THE NEED OF A RIGHT TO AUTONOMY.......................... 265 APPENDIX ............................................................................................... 271 1 The FUEN draft convention „Autonomy rights of ethnic groups in Europe“ (1994).... 271 2 The Lund Recommendations on the effective participation of national minorities in public life (1999)........................................................................................................... 278 3 Recommendation 43 (1998) on territorial autonomy and national minorities........... 281 4 The European Charter of Local Self-Government (1985)........................................... 283 5 Regions with legislative powers: towards multi-level governance (2009).................. 287 6 The world‘s dependent territories ............................................................................. 290 7 Free associated states (associate statehood) ........................................................... 294 8 A different list of territorial autonomy arrangements................................................ 295 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................... 297 General references on autonomy.................................................................................. 297 Links to general information on autonomy................................................................... 301 Links to official documents .......................................................................................... 302 Autonomy statutes on the web..................................................................................... 303 NGOs and institutions dealing with autonomy and minority rights............................... 304 4 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS IRA Irish Republican Army IWGIA International Working Group for Indigenous ABAS Aceh Barat Selatan Affairs ALA Aceh Leuser Antara