The Process of Decolonization from the Perspective of International Law

Decolonization, as a form of establishing sovereign states, is one of the important phenomena of the twentieth century, although its roots can be traced back to the nineteenth century. The increase in the number of UN member states from 51 in 1945 to 149 in 1984 was largely due to decolonization. While colonizers would refer to colonies as part of their own territories and refuse to grant them independence for a long time, from the late 1950s, the UN began to take important measures to accelerate the process of decolonization. This led to the adoption of UN resolution 1514 of December 1960, which recognized the right to self-determination of colonies as a binding rule in the international legal system. The main question of this article is, what processes transformed decolonization from a political ideal into a legal norm? As descriptive research, the present study used library and Internet resources. The analysis of the decolonization process shows that despite the resistance of colonizing states and the failure to include the right of colonies to attain independence in the UN Charter, the right to self-determination of colonies has become an imperative rule in international law owing to liberation movements as well as the support from socialist and the Third World states in the UN General Assembly. As a result, decolonization has been considered one of the most important ways of establishing new states in the international arena.