Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra/Biafra Independence Movement (MASSOB-BIM) would join the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) General Assembly meeting scheduled for July 31-August 2.
The meeting initially slated for the District of Columbia will now hold online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
General Secretary of UNPO, Ralph J. Bunche, who announced the changes, yesterday, said the online meeting will prepare the ground for the 30th anniversary of the UNPO next year.
MASSOB-IBM is joining the UNPO meeting on the heels of its growing agitation for an independent Biafra.
“While unfortunate, there is one big advantage of this change, next year is the UNPO’s 30th anniversary, and by having the event online this summer, we will be able to hold a much larger, all-encompassing, in-person meeting in the first half of next year to reflect on the last 30 years, elect new member leadership and kick us off for the next 30 years in the right way. To that end, we would like to use the General Assembly this summer to prepare for this hugely important anniversary,” he said.
According to him, the three-day meeting would also be used to elect new members, discuss the coronavirus pandemic as well as enliven the UNPO’s membership structures and advise its secretariat on its three long-term strategic goals.
“As you will see we are aiming to have a big, exciting plenary on the first day at which we will elect our new members, we will meet to discuss the Coronavirus crisis and what it means for us all. The second and third days will then focus on our efforts to truly enliven the UNPO’s membership structures to deliver us into this next exciting phase of our movement.
“To that end, we will hold meetings of regional blocks of UNPO members, form committees to discuss and develop the UNPO membership structures further, and form working groups to advise the UNPO Secretariat on its three long-term strategic campaigns,” he said.
The working groups include, members from the OSCE region; members from the African Union (AU) region; members from the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) region; and Committee on Information and Communication Technology, which would focus to improve communication and cooperation within the UNPO.
The other groups are Committee on Gender Diversity which will be charged with working to improve gender balance within the UNPO and further unrepresented women goals; Committee on Resolutions, which will work to develop conference resolutions and also to develop structures for UNPO resolutions throughout the year; Working Group on the UNPO Compromised Spaces campaign, that will work on reprisals against self-determination activists and closing space for civil society at the UN.
Others are Working Group on the UNPO complicity in repression campaign that would look into how the foreign and investment policies of China, Russia, USA, EU are impacting the rights of unrepresented people worldwide.