Back Lys van omstrede gebiede Afrikaans Lista d'estaus con reconoiximiento limitau AN قائمة الدول ذات الاعتراف المحدود Arabic ليسطة د الدول اللي عندها عتيراف محدود ARY لستة الدول اللى مش معترف بيها بالكامل ARZ Tanınmayan və ya qismən tanınan dövlətlərin siyahısı Azerbaijani Непрызнаныя і часткова прызнаныя дзяржавы Byelorussian Сьпіс непрызнаных краінаў BE-X-OLD সীমিত স্বীকৃতিপ্রাপ্ত রাষ্ট্রসমূহের তালিকা Bengali/Bangla Spisak nepriznatih i djelomično priznatih država BS
In international law a political entity needs to fulfill different criteria to become an independent state: One of these criteria is that other states must recognize it as a state. If more states recognize it, becoming a de jure sovereign state will be easier.
Many of the territories listed below broke off (separated themselves) from their original parent state, and so they are often referred to as "break-away" states, that are de facto independent and are not recognized by other states or are only recognized by few states. They may have some military protection and informal diplomatic representation abroad. Another state may help them avoid forced reincorporation into its original state.