Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

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Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO)
Flag of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Flag
Location of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Click on map to enlarge and see color legend
Headquarters The Hague, Netherlands
Membership 571 population groups
Leaders
 -  General Secretary Marino Busdachin
(since 2003)
Establishment February 11, 1991
Population
 -   estimate c.200 million 
Website
http://www.unpo.org/
1 Last updated in September 2008.
Map showing states containing one or more members of the UNPO

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.[1][2]

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 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:

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

Contents

[edit] Members

The following are the 57 members as listed on the UNPO Nations & People page:

[edit] Africa

[edit] Asia

[edit] Asia (Cont'd)

[edit] Americas

[edit] Europe

[edit] Oceania & Australasia

[edit] 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:
      •  Estonia - independence restored in 1991
      •  Latvia - independence restored in 1991
    • Two Transcaucasian republics:
      •  Armenia - independence restored in 1991
      •  Georgia - independence restored in 1991
  • Others:
    •  Timor-Leste - former Portuguese colony annexed by Indonesia in 1975 and independent since 2002
    •  Palau - formerly part of the US-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and independent since 1994
    •  Kosovo - disputed Serbian territory, declared independence February 2008, but is not recognized as such by the UN or most UN member states
    •  Abkhazia - declared independence from Georgia in 2008. Russia aided Abkhazian separatists in the ensuing conflict and later invaded Georgia. Abkhazia is not recognized by the UN, and is only recognized by 2 UN member states, Russia and Nicaragua.

[edit] General Secretaries

Michael van Walt van Praag 1991-1997
Tsering Jampa 1997-1998
Helen S. Corbett 1998-1999
Erkin Alptekin 1999-2003
Marino Busdachin 2003 to present[3]

[edit] Criticism

Valery Tishkov, 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 activities 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.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Barbara Crossette, Those Knocking, Unheeded, at U.N.'s Doors Find Champion, New York Times, December 18, 1994.
  2. ^ a b Tishkov, Valerie, An Anthropology of NGOs, Eurozine, July 2008
  3. ^ UNPO UNPO Presidency & Secretariat, UNPO web site.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrepresented_Nations_and_Peoples_Organization"
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