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Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

UNPO

image provided to Ben Cahoon, 16 January 2009
Source: UNPO office, The Hague

Flag of UNPO
Former flag
List of organizations involved in UNPO

See also:

International Organizations

Flag of UNPO

The website of UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation) is at www.unpo.org, where it says:

"UNPO is an international organisation created by nations and peoples around the world, who are not represented as such in the world's principal international organisations, such as the United Nations. Founded in 1991, UNPO today consists of over 50 members who represent over 100 million persons. UNPO offers an international forum for occupied nations, indigenous peoples, minorities, and even oppressed majorities who currently struggle to regain their lost countries, preserve their cultural identities, protect their basic human and economic rights and safeguard the natural environment."
Ben Cahoon, 9 October 2008

The UNPO flag was adopted on 5 August 1991 at the second UNPO General Assembly. At the first GA on 11 February 1991 it was decided to call on all present members to design both a flag and a symbol for UNPO. At the time of the second GA both a flag and a symbol were adopted, however over the years the flag was deemed not clear enough to identify UNPO, which was the reason why the logo was more often used than the flag. In 2005 it was decided to combine the flag and symbol into a new flag.
Jeroen Zandberg, UNPO Secretariat, 15 January 2009

"The logo of UNPO was the result of an open competition in which Mr. Qenan Sheji (of Albania) made the winning design. As far as I know, UNPO did not adopt a new flag in 2002. The flag without the UNPO name in the middle was sometimes used before and after that time and I am not completely sure why this happened, but the official flag is the one that is attached and it is usually behind a deep blue background; also see the photo's on our website.
Jeroen".
Ben Cahoon, 9 October 2008

The date of the adoption of the new flag was 24 June 2005.
Jeroen Zandberg, 4 November 2009

Former flag

image by Jens Pattke, 15 August 2002

Adopted at the first General Assembly on 11 February 1991. Replaced by current flag in 2005. The ring of colors of the original flag was simplified and 'UNPO' was added to the flag. Therefore, since June 2005 the official UNPO flag is the one with the UNPO symbol. The original flag had a ring of colors to represent the 'colorful world'.
Jeroen Zandberg, UNPO Secretariat, 15 January 2009

List of organizations involved in UNPO

UNPO Director-General is Karl von Habsburg, appointed in January 2002. UNPO is located in The Hague (The Netherlands).

The members of UNPO are listed on http://www.unpo.org/nations_people.php, with a link to an individual page for each member.

I am describing these flags, following the UNPO members' list. In my comments, "similar" means that the flags shown on UNPO website and ours are the same, whereas identical means that the images shown on UNPO website and ours are the same.

Abkhazia - flag similar to that at ge-abkha.html, but with wrong proportion (4:7 instead of 1:2).
Aboriginals of Australia - image identical to that at au-ab.html.
Aceh/Sumatra - flag similar to that at id-aceh.html, but with wrong proportion (~2:3 instead of 1:2).
Albanians in Macedonia - National Albanian flag, similar to that at al.html, but with wrong proportion (2:3 instead of 5:7).
Assyria - image identical to that at assyria.html, but in a larger size. This was the original image of this flag before I resized and corrected it.
Bashkortostan - flag similar to that at ru-02.html. Most probably an earlier version of this flag by Rick Wyatt, which was later corrected by myself and credited to both of us.
Batwa (Rwanda) - flag similar to that at xw-twa.html.
Bougainville - flag similar to that at pg-ns.html. Most probably an earlier image of the flag, now discarded from our site.
Buryatia - flag similar to that at ru-bu.html. Most probably an earlier image of the flag, now discarded from our site.
Cabinda - flag similar to that at ao-cabin.html.
Chechen Republic Ichkeria - image identical to that at ru-ce.html.
Chin State - flag similar to that at mm-chin.html. Most probably an earlier image of this flag, later corrected by us.
Chittagong Hill Tracts - flag similar to that at bd-cht.html.
Chuvash - purple (incorrect) flag. Most probably an earlier image of this flag, now discarded from our website. See our page at ru-cu.html.
Circassia - flag similar to that at ru-kc.html.
Cordillera (Phillippines) - image identical to that at ph-cpdf.html.
Crimea - flag similar to that at ua_krtat.html.
East Timor - flag similar to the modern flag of East Timor (Timor Leste) at tl_dret.html. Most probably an earlier image of this flag, now discarded from our website.
East Turkestan - flag similar to fourth image (cn-xj.gif, blue field, white crescent and star) on our pages at cn-islam.html.
Gagauzia - image identical to that at md-gagau.html.
Greek Minority in Albania - Greek national flag.
Hungarian Minority in Romania - Hungarian national flag.
Ingushetia - flag similar to that shown at ru-06.html. Most probably an earlier image of this flag, now discarded from our website.
Inkeri - flag similar to that at ru-ingri.html.
Iraqi Turkoman - flag similar to that at iq-turkm.html.
Kalahui Hawaii - flag similar to that at us-hi-im.html.
Karenni State - Flag similar to that at mm-tribe.html#karenni.
Khmer Kampuchea Krom - an original flag.
Kosovo - Albanian national flag. See Albania.
Komyk - an original flag.
Kurdistan (Iraq)- no flag shown.
Lakota Nation - no flag shown.
Maohi People (French Polynesia) - could be similar to Hau Tahiti flag, described on pf}haut.html. Shown in "Flags of Paradise" chart, as "Maohi Provisional Government".
Mapuche - flag similar to that on xu.html.
Mon People - flag similar to that at mm-tribe.html#mon.
Nagaland - flag similar to that at in-nl.html.
Nuxalk Nation - no flag shown.
Ogoni (Nigeria) - as described on ng}ogoni.html.
Rusyn People - flag shown at ua-zk.html (from UNPO website).
Sanjak - image similar (resized) to that at cs-sanja.html.
Sakha Republic (Yakutia) - similar to flags shown on ru-14.html. Most probably an earlier image of the flag, later corrected.
Scania - image similar to that at se-scani.html.
Shan State - flag similar to that at mm-shan.html, but with proportion 2:3.
South Moluccas, Republic of - flag similar to that at id-rms.html.
Taiwan - image nearly identical to that at tw.html. Most probably an earlier image of the flag, later corrected.
Tatarstan - flag similar to that at ru-16.html. Most probably an earlier image of the flag, later corrected.
Tibet - flag similar to that at xt.html, but with yellow edge on the wrong side.
Tuva - flag similar to that at ru-ty.html.
Udmurtia - image nearly identical to that at ru-ud.html. Most probably an earlier image of the flag, later corrected.
West Papua - flag similar to that at id-irja.html, but with proportion 2:3 instead of 1:2.
Zanzibar - flag similar to that at tz-zan.html, but without the white stripe along the hoist.

Former members of UNPO are Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, and Palau (flags not shown on UNPO website).

Ivan Sache, 10 March 2002

The UNPO Presidency met from 01 to 03 February 2007 at the European Parliament in Brussels, where it welcomed the following nations and peoples into the organisation (details at http://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=6263):

54. Hmong ChaoFa
55. Inner Mongolia
56. Iranian Kurdistan
57. Rehoboth Basters
58. Southern Azerbaijan
59. Tsimshian

Jens Pattke, 17 February 2007

At the last UNPO Presidency Meeting on 9 October 2009 three members were suspended who are no longer part of UNPO. These are:

Buffalo River Dene Nation
Komi - image nearly identical to that at ru-11.html. Most probably an earlier image of the flag, later corrected on our site.
Mari - image nearly identical to the second "incorrect flag" shown at ru-12.html. Most probably an earlier image of the flag, later corrected.

Jeroen Zandberg, 4 November 2009

See also:

photo of UNPO and members of several of the peoples represented with their flags (from a Swedish newspaper)

Jens Pattke, 15 August 2002

Ilmars Bite sent an interesting link collection. Here one sees the flags of the new members of the UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation) :

Eastern Balochistan or Iranian Balochistan http://www.ostomaan.org/BNP2005/BPP_UNOP2005.htm, http://www.ostomaan.org/BNP2005/photos.htm
Talish - Mugan Republik (Talish people) http://www.talinf.4t.com/flagen.html

Jens Pattke, 14 July 2005