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An independence referendum is a type of referendum in which the residents of a territory decide whether the territory should become an independent sovereign state. An independence referendum that results in a vote for independence does not always ultimately result in independence.
An independence referendum typically arises first after political success for nationalists of a territory. This could come in the election of politicians or parties with separatist policies, or from pressure from nationalist organisations.
Negotiations for the terms of an independence referendum may take place between the nationalists and the government which exercises sovereignty over the territory. If terms can be agreed, then the independence referendum can be held with its result binding, and respected by the international community. Independence referendums can be held without the consent of a national or the federal governments, then the international community will rely on several other factors, e.g. were the local people oppressed by the central government or not, to decide if the result can be recognized or not.
Various issues can be discussed in negotiations, such as the date and timing of the poll, as well as voter eligibility. For these instances, common electoral practice is often widely used, although there can be deviations, as seen with the lowering of the voting age for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
Other issues to be negotiated include what question or questions should be on the ballot, and what the voting options could be. Independence referendums can offer options of greater autonomy as well as, or instead of, the status quo. They can also put forward other constitutional questions to ballot. The questions that referendums ask may be revised if parties involved in negotiations consider them to be too leading.
Negotiations notably need to address what would make a result binding. For some independence referendums, a simple majority is required for one option. In other cases, a quota can be used, where a certain percentage of the vote or the electorate needs to be in favour of an option for it to be binding.
Successful negotiations can be hard to achieve for nationalists, as governments can be reluctant to give up sovereignty. For example, nationalists planned to hold a referendum in Catalonia in 2014, but met opposition from the Spanish government. As a result, the referendum that went ahead was unofficial and non-binding.
In the event of a vote for independence, there may be negotiations on the terms of secession for the territory from the sovereign state. A declaration of independence for a new state is then made, and international recognition can follow, as well as membership of international organisations such as the United Nations. In cases involving non-binding referendums, this can lead to a unilateral declaration of independence, and therefore partially recognised or self-proclaimed states, like the Donbas status referendums.
In the event of a vote against independence, there may still be a strong nationalist movement and calls for there to be a rerun of the independence referendum. For example, after two referendums in Quebec, the Parti Québécois has continued to raise the prospect of holding another referendum, [1] and the Scottish National Party has said that there should be a repeat of the 2014 referendum now that the United Kingdom has left the European Union.
| Proposed state | Year | Proposed independence from | Majority for independence | Independence | Recognition of result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Chile | 1817 |  Spain | Yes | Yes | No | Unilaterally declared independence. |
 Liberia | 1846 | American Colonization Society | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Maryland | 1853 | Maryland State Colonization Society | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Norway | 1905 |  Sweden–Norway | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Iceland | 1918 |  Denmark | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Western Australia | 1933 |  Australia | Yes | No | No | |
 Cambodia | 1945 |  France | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Mongolia | 1945 |  China | Yes | Yes | Yes | Initially recognized by the Republic of China, but recognition was abolished in 1953; recognized by the People's Republic of China. |
 Faroe Islands | 1946 | Denmark | Yes | No | No | Independence declaration annulled by Denmark. |
 Newfoundland | 1948 |  United Kingdom | No | No | Yes | Integrated with Canada. |
 Nagaland | 1951 | India | Yes | No | No | Unrecognized by the government of India. [2] |
 Saar | 1955 | France | No | No | Yes | Integrated with West Germany. |
 Cameroon | 1958 | No | No | Yes | Referendum on a new French constitution. A no vote would have led to independence. | |
 Central African Republic | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Chad | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Comoros | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Republic of the Congo | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Dahomey | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
| Djibouti | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
| French Polynesia | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Gabon | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Guinea | 1958 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
 Ivory Coast | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Madagascar | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Mali | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Mauritania | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
| New Caledonia | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Niger | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
| Senegal | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Upper Volta | 1958 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Western Samoa | 1961 |  New Zealand | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Algeria | 1962 | France | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Malta | 1964 | United Kingdom | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Rhodesia | 1964 | Yes | De facto | No | Unilaterally declared independence. | |
| Djibouti | 1967 | France | No | No | Yes | |
 Puerto Rico | 1967 |  United States | No | No | Yes | |
 West Papua | 1969 |  Indonesia | No | No | Yes | |
 Northern Mariana Islands | 1969 | United States | No | No | Yes | |
 Bahrain | 1970 | United Kingdom | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Niue | 1974 | New Zealand | Majority for associated status | Associated status achieved | Yes | Became an associated state of New Zealand. |
| Comoros | 1974 | France | Yes | Yes | Yes | Mayotte remained with France. |
 Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands | 1975 | United States | No | No | Yes | |
 Guam | 1976 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Aruba | 1977 |  Netherlands | Yes | No | Yes | Independence plans dropped in 1994. |
 Djibouti | 1977 | France | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Nevis | 1977 |  Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla | Yes | No | No | Unofficial referendum to become independent from Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla and attain Crown colony status within the British Empire. Unrecognized by the central government. |
 Quebec | 1980 |  Canada | No | No | Yes | |
 Ciskei | 1980 |  South Africa | Yes | De facto | Partial | Recognized by South Africa; not by the international community. |
| Guam | 1982 | United States | No | No | Yes | |
 Federated States of Micronesia | 1983 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Became an associated state of the United States. | |
 Marshall Islands | 1983 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Palau | 1983 | No | No | Yes | Became an associated state of the United States. | |
| 1984 | No | No | Yes | |||
 Cocos (Keeling) Islands | 1984 | Australia | No | No | Yes | |
 Falkland Islands | 1986 | United Kingdom | No | No | Yes | |
| New Caledonia | 1987 | France | No | No | Yes | |
 Slovenia | 1990 |  Yugoslavia | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unilaterally declared independence. |
 Armenia | 1991 |  Soviet Union | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Azerbaijan | 1991 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
 Croatia | 1991 | Yugoslavia | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unilaterally declared independence. |
 Estonia | 1991 | Soviet Union | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Georgia | 1991 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
 Kosova | 1991 | Yugoslavia | Yes | No | No | Only recognized by Albania. |
 Latvia | 1991 | Soviet Union | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Lithuania | 1991 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
 North Macedonia | 1991 | Yugoslavia | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 Nagorno-Karabakh | 1991 | Soviet Union | Yes | De facto | No | Unilaterally declared independence. |
 Ukraine | 1991 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
 Transnistria | 1991 | Yes | De facto | No | Unilaterally declared independence. | |
 Gagauz Republic | 1991 | Yes | De facto [3] | No | Unilaterally separated from Moldova; reintegrated into the country in 1995. | |
 Turkmenistan | 1991 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
 Uzbekistan | 1991 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
 Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1992 | Yugoslavia | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unilaterally declared independence. |
 Montenegro | 1992 | No | No | Yes | Montenegro split from Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. | |
 South Ossetia | 1992 | Georgia | Yes | De facto | No | Unilaterally declared independence. |
 Tatarstan | 1992 |  Russia | Yes | Yes | No | Reintegrated with Russia in 1994. |
 Eritrea | 1993 |  Ethiopia | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
 United States Virgin Islands | 1993 | United States | No | No | Yes | |
| Puerto Rico | 1993 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Curaçao | 1993 | Netherlands | No | No | Yes | |
 Bonaire | 1994 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Sint Maarten | 1994 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Saba | 1994 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Sint Eustatius | 1994 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Bermuda | 1995 | United Kingdom | No | No | Yes | |
| Quebec | 1995 | Canada | No | No | Yes | |
 Seborga | 1995 [4] |  Italy | Yes | No | No | Regarded as a micronation. |
 Anjouan | 1997 |  Comoros | Yes | De facto | No | Reintegrated with the Comoros in 2001. |
| Nevis | 1998 |  Saint Kitts and Nevis | Yes | No | Yes | 2/3 majority was required for independence. |
| Puerto Rico | 1998 | United States | No | No | Yes | |
 East Timor | 1999 | Indonesia | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Sint Maarten | 2000 | Netherlands | No | No | Yes | |
 Somaliland | 2001 |  Somalia | Yes | De facto | No | |
| Bonaire | 2004 | Netherlands | No | No | Yes | |
| Saba | 2004 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Kurdistan | 2005 |  Iraq | Yes | No | No | |
| Curaçao | 2005 | Netherlands | No | No | Yes | |
| Sint Eustatius | 2005 | No | No | Yes | ||
 Montenegro | 2006 |  Serbia and Montenegro | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| South Ossetia | 2006 |  Georgia | Yes | De facto | No | |
| Transnistria | 2006 |  Moldova | Yes | De facto | No | |
 Tokelau | 2006 | New Zealand | Majority for associated status but Quorum not reached | Associated status not achieved | Yes | The referendum was on whether Tokelau should become an associated state of New Zealand. 2/3 majority was required. |
| 2007 | Majority for associated status but Quorum not reached | Associated status not achieved | Yes | |||
 Tamil Eelam | 2009-2010 |  Sri Lanka | Yes | No | No | Unofficial referendum. Unrecognized by the government of Sri Lanka. |
 South Sudan | 2011 |  Sudan | Yes [5] | Yes | Yes | |
| Puerto Rico | 2012 | United States | No | No | Yes | |
 Donetsk | 2014 | Ukraine | Yes [6] | De facto [7] | No | Unilaterally declared independence. |
 Luhansk | 2014 | Yes [6] | De facto [7] | No | Unilaterally declared independence. | |
 Veneto | 2014 | Italy | Yes | No | No | Unofficial referendum. Unrecognized by the government of Italy. |
 Scotland | 2014 | United Kingdom | No | No | Yes | |
 Catalonia | 2014 |  Spain | Yes | No | No | |
| Sint Eustatius | 2014 | Netherlands | No | No | Yes | |
 South Brazil | 2016 |  Brazil | Yes | No | No | Unofficial referendum. Unrecognized by the government of Brazil. |
| Puerto Rico | 2017 | United States | No | No | Yes | |
| Kurdistan | 2017 |  Iraq | Yes | No [8] | No | The referendum also took place in the disputed territories of Northern Iraq. |
| Catalonia | 2017 | Spain | Yes | No [9] | No | Unilaterally declared independence. Declaration annulled by the government of Spain. [10] |
| South Brazil | 2017 | Brazil | Yes | No | No | Unofficial referendum. Unrecognized by the government of Brazil. |
 New Caledonia | 2018 | France | No | No | Yes | |
 Bougainville | 2019 |  Papua New Guinea | Yes | Subject to negotiation [11] | Yes | Nonbinding vote. [12] Independence rests with Papua New Guinea's parliament. [13] |
| New Caledonia | 2020 | France | No | No [14] | Yes | |
| 2021 | No | No | Yes | Boycotted by pro-independence parties. [15] |
The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law, binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It states that peoples, based on respect for the principle of equal rights and fair equality of opportunity, have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no interference.
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of a dependent territory or colony. The commemoration of the independence day of a country or nation celebrates when a country is free from all forms of colonialism; free to build a country or nation without any interference from other nations.
Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession. A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal is the creation of a new state or entity independent of the group or territory from which it seceded. Threats of secession can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.
The Quebec sovereignty movement is a political movement whose objective is to achieve the independence of Quebec from Canada. Sovereignists suggest that the people of Quebec make use of their right to self-determination – a principle that includes the possibility of choosing between integration with a third state, political association with another state or independence – so that Québécois, collectively and by democratic means, give themselves a sovereign state with its own independent constitution.
The 1995 Quebec referendum was the second referendum to ask voters in the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec whether Quebec should proclaim sovereignty and become an independent country, with the condition precedent of offering a political and economic agreement to Canada.
The Clarity Act is legislation passed by the Parliament of Canada that established the conditions under which the Government of Canada would enter into negotiations that might lead to secession following such a vote by one of the provinces. The Clarity Bill (C-20) was tabled for first reading in the House of Commons on 13 December 1999. It was passed by the House on 15 March 2000, and by the Senate, in its final version, on 29 June 2000.
Presented below is a list of lists of active separatist movements:
The 1980 Quebec independence referendum was the first referendum in Quebec on the place of Quebec within Canada and whether Quebec should pursue a path toward sovereignty. The referendum was called by Quebec's Parti Québécois (PQ) government, which advocated secession from Canada.
Reference Re Secession of Quebec, [1998] 2 SCR 217 is a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the legality, under both Canadian and international law, of a unilateral secession of Quebec from Canada.
There have been various movements within Canada for secession.
The Catalan independence movement is a social and political movement which seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain.
On 17 February 2008, the majority of members of the Assembly of Kosovo, including Hashim Thaçi, and Fatmir Sejdiu, not acting in the capacity of PISG, declared Kosovo an independent and sovereign state. Kosovo was soon recognized as a sovereign state by the United States, Turkey, Albania, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and others. This triggered an international debate over whether Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence had set a precedent in international law that could apply to other separatist movements, or whether it is a special case. The recognition of Kosovo's independence by 101 out of 193 UN states, according to many sources, has given fresh impetus to other separatist movements.
In the context of the United States, secession primarily refers to the voluntary withdrawal of one or more states from the Union that constitutes the United States; but may loosely refer to leaving a state or territory to form a separate territory or new state, or to the severing of an area from a city or county within a state. Advocates for secession are called disunionists by their contemporaries in various historical documents.
An independence referendum was held in the Armenia SSR on 21 September 1991 to determine whether to secede from the Soviet Union. It followed a declaration of independence on 23 August 1990. 99.5% of voters voted in favour, with a turnout of 95%. The country officially became an independent state on 23 September 1991.
A non-binding Catalan self-determination referendum, also known as the Citizen Participation Process on the Political Future of Catalonia, was held on Sunday, 9 November 2014, to gauge support on the political future of Catalonia. While also referred to as "Catalan independence referendum", the vote was rebranded as a "participation process" by the Government of Catalonia, after a "non-referendum popular consultation" on the same topic and for the same date had been suspended by the Constitutional Court of Spain.
A sovereignty referendum was held in Tatarstan, Russia, on 21 March 1992. Voters were asked whether they approved of Tatarstan being a sovereign state.
As a result of the advisory 2017 Catalan independence referendum, reactions came from a multitude of avenues, including the domestic central state and other official bodies, as well as international commentary. Whilst the government and non-government community in Catalonia defended the vote, most of the international community either defended Spain's "territorial integrity" or simply criticised the central police's overhanded response. Other sub-national entities also supported Catalonia.
The Catalan declaration of independence was a resolution that was passed by the Parliament of Catalonia on 27 October 2017. While the text proclaims the independence of Catalonia from Spain and the establishment of an independent Catalan Republic, the declaration itself did not receive recognition from the international community and it produced no legal effect.
A non-binding independence referendum was held in Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea, between 23 November and 7 December 2019. The referendum question was a choice between greater autonomy within Papua New Guinea and full independence; voters voted overwhelmingly (98.31%) for independence.
In 1995, Giorgio held a referendum, with Seborgans opting for independence 304-4.