The Friendly Relations Declaration allows self-determination to predominate over state sovereignty and territorial integrity in limited circumstances – in the event of deliberate, sustained, and systematic human rights violations against peoples. By doing so, the Declaration draws a link between internal and external self-determination: the neglect of the former provides justification for the invoking of the latter, which may be exercised by secession. 170 This is a seminal development, challenging-albeit modestly-the long-entrenched incontrovertibility of state sovereignty and territorial integrity. In addition to Cassese, 171 various other scholars have broadly concurred with the foregoing analysis. 172 Ved Nanda, for instance, has written
