A/HRC/58/54 the minority group and the dominant group.40 The present thematic report demonstrates that such an end can be achieved through the full respect of the identity of persons belonging to minority groups. D. The right to identity in international law 50. For the three levels of identity that were identified as relevant for minority issues (see para. 44 above), there is quite a differentiated situation as regards references to identity in international law. There is a clear disposition of positive law as regards individual identity in article 8 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Gender identity is also a recognized concept of international law (even though it has not yet been translated into a positive law provision), at least since the Human Rights Council appointed an independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.41 With regard to collective identities, references can be found in non-binding legal instruments (such as the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities or the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity). There is, however, no reference to national identity in international law. 42 Nevertheless, national identity is an important feature for most States in the world, also to be taken into account in international relations. The present section will therefore examine the right of States to identity and the right to individual identity. As we have seen, as they are not legal persons in international law, minorities cannot be rights-holders; however, minority identity results from the combined exercise of the specific right to identity by persons belonging to minorities, on the one hand, and the recognition and protection of that identity by the State in accordance with article 1 of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, on the other. 1. The right of States to a national identity 51. States sovereignly define their identity in founding documents, most commonly taking the form of a constitution. States are problematic legal objects. States are legal persons, meaning they do not exist as natural persons, but only exist according to law (see para. 40 above). The difficulty with States is that they are at the foundation of both a specific national legal order (and therefore cannot be defined by this national legal order before it exists) and of international law. Further, a State cannot be created within an existing legal order, as it would then not be a sovereign entity (a defining characteristic of statehood) since its existence would find its root in another State’s legal order. Nor can a State be created according to international law, since international law is the product of States’ interactions. Therefore, States precede the international legal order, which is why States, despite being legal persons, are not defined, but only recognized, by other international law subjects. The only option is for States to define themselves, including by adopting and promoting an identity, which then singularizes and defines them, both domestically and internationally. In other words, a State’s identity directly arises from the right to self-determination.43 40 41 42 43 10 Ibid., paras. 37–41. See Human Rights Council resolution 32/2. With the exception of the Treaty on European Union, article 4 (2) of which reads in part: “The Union shall respect the equality of Member States before the Treaties as well as their national identities, inherent in their fundamental structures, political and constitutional, inclusive of regional and local self-government.” However, most European law academics consider European Union law to be of a different nature than international law, since the publication of the seminal work of Pierre Pescatore, Le droit de l’intégration : émergence d’un phénomène nouveau dans les relations internationales selon l’expérience des Communautés européennes (Leiden, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sïjthoff, 1972). As the General Assembly asserted in 1970 in the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations (resolution 2625 (XXV)): “The establishment of a sovereign and independent State, the free association or integration with an independent State or the emergence into any other political status freely determined by a people constitute modes of implementing the right of self-determination by that people.” GE.25-00509