Since the early 1990s, the legitimatization of the principle of national self-determination has led to an increase in the number of conflicts within states, as sub-groups seek greater self-determination and full secession, and as their conflicts for leadership within groups and with other groups and with the dominant state become violent. The international reaction to these new movements has been uneven and often dictated more by politics than principle. The 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration failed to deal with these new demands, mentioning only "the right to self-determination of peoples which remain under colonial domination and foreign occupation."

In an issue of Macquarie University Law Journal Associate Professor Aleksandar Pavkovic and Senior Lecturer Peter Radan outlined current legal and political issues in self-determination.
There is not a recognized legal definition of "peoples" in international law. Indeed, Ivor Jennings called Wilson's doctrine "ridiculous" because, though on the surface it seems reasonable to "let the people decide", in practice "the people cannot decide until someone decides who are the people".

Reviewing various international judgements and UN resolutions, Vita Gudeleviciute of Vytautas Magnus University Law School finds that, in cases of non-self-governing peoples (colonized and/or indigenous) and foreign military occupation, "a people" is defined as the entire population of the occupied territorial unit, no matter their other differences. Meanwhile, in cases where people lack representation by a state's government, the unrepresented become a defined as a separate people. Present international law does not recognize ethnic and other minorities as separate peoples, with the notable exception of cases in which such groups are systematically disenfranchised by the government of the state they live in.

Other definitions offered are "peoples" as self-evident (from ethnicity, language, history, etc.) , or defined by "ties of mutual affection or sentiment" ("loyalty", or by mutual obligations among peoples).

Professor Uriel Abulof suggests that self-determination entails the "moral double helix" of duality: 1. personal right to align with a people, and the people's right to determine their politics; and 2. and mutuality (the right is as much the other's as the self's). Thus, self-determination grants individuals the right to form "a people," which then has the right to establish an independent state, as long as they grant the same to all other individuals and peoples.

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There have been a number of notable cases of self-determination. For more information on past movements see list of historical separatist movements and lists of decolonized nations. Also see list of autonomous areas by country and lists of active separatist movements.
The Republic of Artsakh (also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), in the Caucasus region, declared its independence in a 1991 referendum, which had an approval of 99% of voters; however, the breakaway state remained unrecognized by UN states and was disbanded on January 1, 2024, after Azerbaijan's military offensive and the evacuation of 99% of the population. It was a member of the Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations along with three other Post-Soviet disputed republics.
The Assyrian independence movement is a political movement and nationalist desire of the Assyrian people to live in their traditional Assyrian homeland under the self-governance of an Assyrian state. The Assyrian territory is currently in parts of Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey.
Self-determination has become the topic of some debate in Australia in relation to Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. In the 1970s, Aboriginal requested the right to administer their own remote communities as part of the homelands movement, also known as the outstation movement. These grew in number through the 1980s, but funding dried up in the 2000s.
The traditional homeland of the Tuareg peoples was divided up by the modern borders of Mali, Algeria and Niger. Numerous rebellions occurred over the decades, but in 2012 the Tuaregs succeeded in occupying their land and declaring the independence of Azawad. However, their movement was hijacked by the Islamist terrorist group Ansar Dine.
The Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria, Spanish: País Vasco, French: Pays Basque) as a cultural region (not to be confused with the homonym Autonomous Community of the Basque country) is a European region in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain, on the Atlantic coast. It comprises the autonomous communities of the Basque Country and Navarre in Spain and the Northern Basque Country in France. Since the 19th century, Basque nationalism has demanded the right of some kind of self-determination. This desire for independence is particularly stressed among leftist Basque nationalists. The right of self-determination was asserted by the Basque Parliament in 1990, 2002 and 2006. Since self-determination is not recognized in the Spanish Constitution of 1978, some Basques abstained and some voted against it in the referendum of December 6 of that year. It was approved by a clear majority at the Spanish level, and with 74.6% of the votes in the Basque Country. However, the overall turnout in the Basque Country was 45% when the Spanish ov…

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• Anti-imperialism
• Boundary problem (political science)
• Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations
• Decolonization
• Ethnic separatism
• Ethnonationalism
• Ethnopluralism
• Independence movement
• Indigenous peoples
• Informational self-determination (German)
• International relations theory
• Irredentism
• Legitimacy
• List of countries that have gained independence from the United Kingdom
• List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies
• List of national liberation movements recognized by intergovernmental organizations
• Lists of active separatist movements
• National delimitation in the Soviet Union
• National personal autonomy
• Nation-state
• Non-Intervention
• Plurinationalism
• Principle of nationalities [fr]
• Religious nationalism
• Right to exist
• Consent of the governed
• Popular sovereignty
• Self-governance
• Separatism
• Stateless nation
• Territorial integrity
• Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
• Wars of national liberation