AUA on Recent UNPO Meeting in Taiwan

Taipei, Taiwan
31 October 2006

As part of its intensive campaign to promote the Assyrian cause on the international level, a delegation of the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) attended the General Assembly of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) in Taipei, Taiwan from 27 to 29 October 2006. Assyria's delegates were Mary Younan (Canada), Hermiz Shahen (Australia), and Youra Tarverdi (United States).

During the 3-day meeting, the Assyrian Universal Alliance delegates presented the critical conditions of the Assyrian people in the Middle-East, with particular focus on Iraq.

The Assyrian Universal Alliance introduced a resolution (included below) that calls the UNPO General Assembly to support an autonomous status (self-administered region) for the Assyrians in Iraq. The resolution triggered a comprehensive debate on the issues it was presenting and was adopted unanimously by the UNPO General Assembly.

Also, the General Assembly received overwhelmingly the World Peace Network (WPN) project as introduced by the delegation. Established in 1997, the WPN is a communication system that would enable different ethnic and indigenous groups to share and preserve their culture and working as a social and economic platform to UNPO's 65 members.

The AUA would like to take this opportunity to thank the previous UNPO Steering Committee and wishes the newly elected Presidency all the success in its forthcoming mandate to foster the knowledge, cause and struggle of unrepresented and oppressed member nations.

Lastly, the AUA wishes to thank the Government of Taiwan for the hospitality and in particular the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy for supporting and sponsoring this successful UNPO VIII General Assembly.