Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

Infobox Geopolitical organization
name = Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO)
linking_name = the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization


symbol_type =

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|200px
map_caption = Click on map to enlarge and see color legend
membership = 57smallsup|1 population groups
admin_center_type = Headquarters
admin_center = The Hague, Netherlands
leader_title1 = General Secretary
leader_name1 = Marino Busdachin (since 2003)
established = February 11 1991
official_website = http://www.unpo.org/
population_estimate = c.200 million
population_estimate_rank =
population_estimate_year =
footnote1 = Last updated in September 2008.

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), formed in 1991, is a democratic, international organization. Its members are indigenous peoples, occupied nations, minorities and independent states or territories which lack representation internationally. The organization educates groups in what channels to use to make their voices heard, and helps defuse tensions so that frustrated groups do not turn to violence to gain attention for their demands. Some former members, like Armenia, Estonia, Latvia and the country of Georgia, have gained full independence and joined the United Nations. [Barbara Crossette, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1DB1238F93BA25751C1A962958260 Those Knocking, Unheeded, at U.N.'s Doors Find Champion] , New York Times, December 18, 1994.] [Tishkov, Valerie, [http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-06-01-tishkov-en.html An Anthropology of NGOs] , "Eurozine", July 2008]

UNPO aims to protect the members' human and cultural rights, preserve their environments, and to find non-violent solutions to conflicts which affect them. UNPO provides a forum for member aspirations and assists its members to participate at an international level.

UNPO members are generally not represented diplomatically (or only with a minor status, such as observer) in major international institutions, such as the United Nations. As a result, their ability to participate in the international community, and to have their concerns addressed by the global bodies mandated to protect human rights and address conflict, is limited.

UNPO is dedicated to the five principles enshrined in its Covenant:

* The equal right to self-determination;
* Adherence to the internationally accepted human rights standards as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments;
* Adherence to the principles of democratic pluralism and rejection of totalitarianism and religious intolerance;
* Promotion of non-violence and the rejection of terrorism as an instrument of policy; and
* Protection of the natural environment.

All members are required to sign and abide by the UNPO Covenant. They must affirm that they support the principle of nonviolencein their people’s struggle for a peaceful solution and that they apply the democratic methodology as their guiding principle. Despite of the "UN" in its acronym, UNPO is an NGO and not an agency of the United Nations.

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Members

Americas

* Buffalo River Dene Nation
* Mapuche
* Tsimshian

Africa

* Afrikaner, (in South Africa)
* Batwa (Pygmies)
* Cabinda
* Maasai
* Ogoni "see also Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People"
* Oromo
* Rehoboth Basters
* Somaliland
* Southern Cameroons (former Ambazonia)
* Vhavenda (in South Africa)
* Zanzibar (constituent part of federal Tanzania)

Oceania & Australasia

* Indigenous Australians
* Ka Lahui Hawai'i

Asia

* Ahwazi; "see also Politics of Khuzestan"
* Assyrians; "see also Assyrian independence"
* Balochistan
* Buryatia; "see also Buryat"
* Burma
* Chin (in Burma)
* Chittagong Hill Tracts
* Cordillera
* East Turkestan
* Gilgit Baltistanfact|date=September 2008
* Hmong ChaoFa
* Inner Mongolia
* Iranian Kurdistan
* Iraqi Kurdistanh
* Iraqi Turkmen
* Karenni State (Kayah State) (in Burma)
* Khmer Krom
* Montagnards
* Mon
* Nagalim
* Sindh
* Shan (in Burma)
* South Moluccas
* Southern Azerbaijan
* Taiwan
* Tibet; "see also Government of Tibet in Exile and Tibetan people"
* Tuva (Turkic people in Asian Russia)
* West Balochistan (in Iran)

Europe

* Abkhazia
* Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
* Circassia; "see also Circassians"
* Crimean Tatars
* Greeks in Albania
* Hungarians in Romania
* Inkeri
* Komi
* Kosovo
* Mari; "see also Mari El"
* Sandžak
* Scania (Skåneland) (represented by "Stiftelsen Skånsk Framtid" [http://www.scania.org/index.html] )
* Udmurtia

Former members

The following former members of the UNPO have since gained United Nations (UN) recognition:

*Four former constitutive republics of the Soviet Union:
**Two Baltic republics:
*** EST - independence restored in 1991
*** LAT - independence restored in 1991
**Two Transcaucasian republics:
*** ARM - independence restored in 1991
*** GEO - independence restored in 1991
*Others:
** TLS - former Portuguese colony annexed by Indonesia in 1975 and independent since 2002
** PLW - formerly part of the US-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and independent since 1994

General Secretaries

Criticism

Valery Tishov, the Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Russian Academy of Sciences and former Russian Minister for nationalities, criticized the UNPO by stating:

The UNPO's activites in The Hague took a different track when the flags of separatist regimes and organizations that emerged after the collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia were hoisted above its headquarters. In the context of new geopolitical rivalries and western euphoria about rebuilding the post-communist world, "unrepresentedness" came to be seen as a breach of order rather than an improvement, as a process of exiting the system rather than finding one's voice within it. [Tishkov, Valerie, [http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-06-01-tishkov-en.html An Anthropology of NGOs] , "Eurozine", July 2008]

ee also

* Micronations
* United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories
* Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples
* Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
* Federal Union of European Nationalities

References

External links

* [http://www.unpo.org/ UNPO Website]
* [http://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=4916 UNPO Covenant]
* [http://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=105 UNPO Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples]
* [http://www.unpo.ee/ UNPO Tartu Coordination Office] (Eastern Europe and Northern Asia)
* [http://www.tamilnation.org/selfdetermination/fourthworld/ Fourth World: Nations Without a State] , Nadesan Satyendra
* [http://www.politicalresources.net/int6.htm List of relevant links]