Member

If a new state emerges that seeks recognition from other states, a question that those states will want to ask, in the context of the absence of a global Executive, legislature and judiciary, is whether that state has the capacity and the power to govern its territory. If the state does not have that capacity to govern its territory, it is likely to become, to that extent, a failed state. Other countries that believe it is in their interest to uphold international peace and stability will question the appropriateness of recognising a state without the wherewithal for self-government. They will fear the destabilising consequences of creating a failed state, arising from the power vacuum left in its wake. Of course, in some contexts there may be no alternative way of governing a territory such that the international community might determine that it is in its interests to try to build capacity to help the polity in question move from the territory of being a failed state to being a fully functional state. I am not questioning for a moment the capacity of the Republic of Mauritius to provide effective government for its current territorial integrity, but I have huge questions about the capacity of the Republic of Mauritius to govern the territorial integrity proposed by the Bill before us today.