The Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States is a treaty signed at

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, on December 26, 1933, during the Seventh International Conference of American States. At the conference,

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

and Secretary of State

Cordell Hull Cordell Hull (October 2, 1871July 23, 1955) was an American politician from Tennessee and the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years (1933–1944) in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevel ...

declared the '' Good Neighbor Policy'', which opposed U.S. armed intervention in inter-American affairs. The convention was signed by 19 states. The acceptance of three of the signatories was subject to minor reservations. Those states were

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and the

. The convention became operative on December 26, 1934. It was registered in the ''

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

Treaty Series'' on January 8, 1936. The conference is notable in U.S. history, since one of the U.S. representatives was Dr. Sophonisba Breckinridge, the first U.S. female representative at an international conference.''From colony to superpower: U.S. foreign relations since 1776''
by George C. Herring,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2008, p. 499. Online at

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. Retrieved 2011-09-20.

Background

In most cases, the only avenue open to

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

for colonial or national ethnic minority populations was to achieve international legal personality as a nation-state. The majority of delegations at the International Conference of American States represented independent states that had emerged from former colonies. In most cases, their own existence and independence had been disputed or opposed by one or more of the European colonial empires. They agreed among themselves to criteria that made it easier for other dependent states with limited sovereignty to gain international recognition.

Contents of the convention

Article 1 sets out the criteria for statehood: The first sentence of Article 3 states that "the political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states." This is known as the

declarative theory of statehood A sovereign state is a state that has the highest authority over a territory. It is commonly understood that a sovereign state is independent. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may also refer to a constituent country, or a ...

. It stands in contrast with the

constitutive theory of statehood A sovereign state is a state that has the highest authority over a territory. It is commonly understood that a sovereign state is independent. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may also refer to a constituent country, or a ...

, by which a state exists only insofar as it is recognized by other states. It should not be confused with the Estrada doctrine. "Independence" and "sovereignty" are not mentioned in article 1. An important part of the convention was a prohibition of using military force to gain sovereignty. According to Article 11 of the convention,

Parties

The 17 states that have ratified this convention are limited to the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. ;Notes A further three states signed the convention on 26 December 1933, but have not ratified it. The only state to attend the Seventh International Conference of American States, where the convention was agreed upon, which did not sign it was

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. Costa Rica, which did not attend the conference, later signed the convention.

Analysis

The Montevideo Convention codified several existing legal norms and principles, which apply to all subjects of international law. The Badinter Committee, which consisted of arbitrators from several European countries, considered a state as having a territory, population, and organised political authority and that the existence of states was a question of fact, while the recognition by other states was purely declaratory.

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

adheres to the same principle, stating that "neither a political unit needs to be recognized to become a state, nor does a state have the obligation to recognize another one. At the same time, neither recognition is enough to create a state, nor does its absence abolish it."Switzerland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DFA, Directorate of International Law: "Recognition of States and Governments," 2005. Actual state practices do not follow the Montevideo Convention exactly. While they play an important role, fulfilling its criteria do not automatically create a state because additional requirements must be met. The status of countries such as

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

and

Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

largely depends on the recognition or non-recognition by other states.

References

External links

Original text at UN Treaties Series
Registration Number: 3802

The Montevideo Convention and Taiwan/ROC {{Franklin D. Roosevelt, state=collapsed History of Montevideo 1933 in the United States Interwar-period treaties Treaties concluded in 1933 Treaties entered into force in 1934 Treaties of Argentina Treaties of Vargas-era Brazil Treaties of Chile Treaties of Colombia Treaties of Cuba Treaties of the Dominican Republic Treaties of Ecuador Treaties of El Salvador Treaties of Guatemala Treaties of Haiti Treaties of Honduras Treaties of Mexico Treaties of Nicaragua Treaties of Panama Treaties of Paraguay Treaties of Peru Treaties of the United States Treaties of Uruguay Treaties of Venezuela Good Neighbor policy