Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

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Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO)
Flag
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Headquarters		The Hague, Netherlands
Membership		701 population groups
Leaders
-	Secretary General	Marino Busdachin (since 2003)
Establishment		February 11, 1991
Population
-	estimate	c.200 million
Website http://www.unpo.org/
1	Last updated in May 2008.

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is a democratic, international organization. Its members are indigenous peoples, occupied nations, minorities and independent states or territories which lack representation internationally.

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 nonviolence in their people’s struggle for a peaceful solution and that they apply the democratic methodology as their guiding principle. Please note that UNPO is not part of the United Nations in spite of the "UN" in its acronym.

Contents 1 Members 1.1 Americas 1.2 Africa 1.3 Oceania & Australasia 1.4 Asia 1.5 Europe 2 Former members 3 Secretaries-General 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Members

[edit] Americas Buffalo River Dene Nation Lakota (Dakota or Sioux Indians) Mapuche Nahuas del Alto Balsas Nuxálk Nation Tsimshian [edit] 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) [edit] Oceania & Australasia Indigenous Australians Bougainville Ka Lahui Hawai'i Maohi West Papua (represented by the OPM)

[edit] Asia Aceh (on Sumatra); see also Free Aceh Movement Ahwazi; see also Politics of Khuzestan Assyrians; see also Assyrian independence Buryatia; see also Buryat Chin (in Myanmar) Chittagong Hill Tracts Cordillera East Turkestan Hmong ChaoFa Inner Mongolia Iranian Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Turkmen Karenni State (Kayah State) (in Myanmar) Khmer Krom Montagnards Mon Nagalim Shan (in Myanmar) South Moluccas Southern Azerbaijan Taiwan Talysh Tibet; see also Government of Tibet in Exile and Tibetan people Tuva (Turkic people in Asian Russia) West Balochistan (in Iran)

[edit] Europe Abkhazia Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia Bashkortostan Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Circassia; see also Circassians Chuvashia Crimean Tatars Gagauzia Greeks in Albania Hungarians in Romania Ingushetia Ingria Komi Kosovo Kumyk Mari; see also Mari El Rusyns Sandžak Scania (Skåneland) (represented by Stiftelsen Skånsk Framtid[1]) Tatarstan Udmurtia

[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:
  • East Timor - former Portuguese colony, annexed by Indonesia and independent since 2002
  • Palau (or Belau) - formerly part of the US-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and independent since 1994

[edit] Secretaries-General

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

[edit] See 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

[edit] External links

• UNPO Website
• UNPO Covenant
• UNPO Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples
• UNPO Tartu Coordination Office (Eastern Europe and Northern Asia)
• Fourth World: Nations Without a State, Nadesan Satyendra
• List of relevant links