The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted on Tuesday a resolution calling on all member states to refrain from recognising or supporting in any way the de facto authorities of territories resulting from unlawful secessions, in particular those supported by foreign military interventions.

The resolution titled “National sovereignty and statehood in contemporary international law: the need for clarification”, was based on the report of Marina Schuster, German member of the Assembly and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe political group.

An official press release, issued here today, describes the resolution as very important and notes that the issue was brought before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of PACE by Cypriot President of the Committee, Christos Pourgourides, and other members.

The resolution invites all member states to refrain from recognising or supporting in any way the de facto authorities of territories resulting from unlawful secessions, in particular those supported by foreign military interventions, and notes that they should be solved exclusively by peaceful means on the basis of international law.

It underscores that military interventions such as that by Turkey in Cyprus in 1974, whilst motivated – justifiably or not – by the need to stop serious human rights violations, have themselves led to numerous human rights violations and have not produced lasting solutions for the underlying problems.