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Will the United Nations ever recognize a micronation?


Creating a micronation is both very easy and very difficult to do. To just declare yourself a nation is simple, but the kicker is getting others to recognize your sovereignty. For most secessionist micronations, the grand goal of recognition is to join the United Nations, the intergovernmental organisation that has been the head of international legal order since its foundation in 1945.

Will the United Nations ever recognize a micronation? It's the question asked so often by secessionist micronations looking to be recognised by the United Nations or other supranational bodies. 

Short answer, no. Why is this so? According to the United Nations, in order to gain membership to the UN, a future member must be recommended by the Security Council to the General Assembly, who then vote on the decision. The last instance a nation was admitted to the UN was South Sudan, which joined in 2011. 

Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon visits South Sudan
Photo credit - UNMISS MEDIA

One of the closest instances a micronation has ever gotten to being recognised by a member of the security council is the Principality of Sealand, which won de facto recognition by a British court. However, any recommendation for admission must receive agreeing votes of 9 out of 15 members of the Security Council, and none of its five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA - can vote against the decision. Then, the vote is put up by the members of the General Assembly.

A state must be recognised by at least two-thirds of the General Assembly after gaining approval of the UN Security Council, which implies that it has the recognition of the major world powers, i.e. the permanent members.

Securing the required votes from both the security council and the general assembly has proved to be a difficult task for large nations, let alone one-man-led micronations. An example of this is Kosovo. This European state declared its independence from the parent country Serbia in 2008 and is currently recognized by more than 100 U.N. member states (sources vary, and some states have withdrawn their recognition). However, two of the dissenting nations are China and Russia, whose votes are required for Kosovo to attain full membership (and nationhood), so it remains in a holding pattern.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

So if the task of joining the UN seems like such an unobtainable task, why bother at all? The answer differs from micronation to micronation, but usually, it is to either gain media attention or because it is logically the best "first" step to take in building a micronation. 

However, it is probably a better idea to take smaller steps when starting out in order to expand a micronation. What are the alternatives to get "recognised"? Many new micronations are recognised by other micronations. While this kind of recognition may not have any diplomatic weight or present any additional practical advantage, it is still some minimal form of recognition. And who knows, maybe one day, that small step you took to get your micronation recognised by others, finally gets your micronation a seat in the United Nations general assembly.

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