The meaning of self-determination associated with the norms of
human rights and democratic rights is adopted by some sub-state
nationalist groups because there is an emerging international
normative framework that perceives the use of this meaning of selfdetermination
as legitimate. [...] Nationalist movements that derive
their understanding of nationhood from ethnic and primordial
conceptions use self-determination to seek democratic liberation.
Achieving this aspiration entails international recognition as a distinct
identity with a specific territory and exclusion of other identities from
claims to that territory as a homeland. Sub-state separatist groups
claiming their right to statehood through self-determination pitch the
territory they claim as an ethnic territory, as a space to which they
attach their identity and desire full control over it.
