Although the Millennium Development Goals, declared by the General Assembly in the Millennium Declaration in 2000, do not refer specifically to energy, in reality none of the goals can be attained without universal access to modern energy services. Recent reports from the United Nations have drawn attention to the link between energy and poverty, and have shown that the access to modern energy services is essential for lifting peoples out of poverty and fundamentally improving their quality of life on an everyday basis.

This article examines the nature and magnitude of the situation in less developed states lacking universal access to modern energy services and considers the current, limited national and international law in this area. The article then argues that it is international law that must play the major role in ensuring that universal access to energy services is realized. It considers what type of international instrument might best serve the purpose of achieving progress in improving modern energy services for those in poverty. Finally, the article provides a draft of such an instrument, together with an explanatory commentary, as a prototype of the steps that could be taken by the international community to achieve progress in this area if there is sufficient political will.

Scholarly literature has generally considered the phenomenon of pro-democratic interventions from the perspective of state-sovereignty, the prohibition of the use of force, and the principle of non-intervention. A human rights approach has remained underexposed to date, even though new manifestations of pro-democratic intervention seem to conflict with the right to self-determination of the local population. The main purpose of this article is to explore the (in)compatibility of the right to political self-determination on the one hand, and new appearances of alleged pro-democratic intervention on the other, thereby using Operation Iraqi Freedom as a test case. The case of Iraq will demonstrate how processes of political transition as part of 'pro-democratic' interventions can endanger observance of the core meaning of the right to political self-determination. More generally, it will be argued that a fundamental tension exists between both concepts.

Introductory Note

The Dutch Committee of Inquiry on the War in Iraq presented its report to Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende and provided copies to both houses of parliament on 12 January 2010. The Committee had been established by the Balkenende cabinet on 6 March 2009 to conduct an independent inquiry into the decision-making process leading to Dutch political (but not military) support of the war in Iraq, in general, and into aspects of international law, intelligence and information gathering as well as alleged Dutch military involvement in Iraq, in particular.[…]

In view of the wide interest in the subject matter, including considerable international interest on the findings of the Committee on the international law basis, the Board of Editors has decided to translate this international law chapter into English which is reproduced here in its entirety. References to other chapters of the report have been retained. The Board of Editors gratefully acknowledges the kind permission of the Committee of Inquiry and Boom publishers to publish this text.