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Decolonization approach From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Blue Water Thesis or Salt Water Thesis (and opposed to the "Belgian Thesis"), was a limited decolonization approach arising from United Nations General Assembly Resolution 637, which linked self-determination with non-self-governing territories.
General Assembly resolution 637 (VII), adopted on 16 December 1952, recognized that “every Member of the United Nations, in conformity with the Charter, should respect the maintenance of the right of self-determination”. Belgium, which had given up its own colonial possessions under the new decolonization mandates, then further attempted to secure human rights and self-determination for native peoples, specifying the Native American peoples within the United States as a prominent example.
In response, nations including the United States pushed through the idea that, in order to be eligible for decolonization, the presence of "blue water" between the colony and the colonizing country – or, at minimum, a geographically discrete set of boundaries – was needed.[1]
There is some confusion as to the use of the three terms, which are at times used interchangeably. This seems to arise from the original thesis, which was inclusive of indigenous peoples within independent states, but was later used to describe the counter-argument that separation was a decolonization prerequisite as nations who entirely consist of such territories can not decolonize.
While recognizing that "the desire for independence is the rightful aspiration of peoples under colonial subjugation and that the denial of their right to self-determination constitutes a threat to the well-being of humanity and to international peace",[3] the U.N. codified the assertions of the colonial powers that moved against Belgium's efforts to expand the official scope of self-determination and decolonization in U.N. General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV).[4]
Questions arising from the continuation, in practice, of the Salt Water Thesis include the following:
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