Why must states avoid recognizing situations created by serious violations of international law?

Under international law, states are obligated to avoid recognizing situations created by serious breaches of peremptory norms—also known as jus cogens rules—because these norms are considered essential for the protection of the international community's fundamental interests.12

When a state commits a serious breach of such a norm, such as through aggression, genocide, or colonial domination, the international community maintains that these acts are fundamentally unlawful. Recognizing the resulting situations—such as illegal annexations or the creation of illegitimate regimes—would undermine the integrity of the international legal order and the peremptory rules that no state is permitted to violate.213

Consequently, all states have a collective responsibility not to recognize these unlawful situations as valid and are further obligated to cooperate in bringing such breaches to an end. This principle serves to uphold the rule of law and ensures that states do not provide legitimacy to actions that fundamentally violate the shared values and legal standards of the global community.23