Feb 22, 2011

UNPO Members Attend 39th Congress of the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty


The 39th Congress of the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT) was held in Chianciano Terme, Italy, 17-20 February 2011. UNPO Members, including Abkhazia, Balochistan, Cabinda, Circassia, Degar-Montagnards, East Turkestan, Iranian Kurdistan, Sindh, Southern Cameroons, Southern Azerbaijan, Ogaden and Mapuche attended the Congress. All attending UNPO Member representatives actively participated in the NRPTT general debates and committee working groups, and many submitted resolutions to the NRPTT Presidency.

 

The four day Congress succeeded in gathering oppressed and unrepresented peoples, nonviolent human rights activists and leaders from different parts of the world including Kyrzystan, Uganda and Iceland. As Emma Bonino, Vice President of the Italian Senate noted, these individuals came together at the Congress in support of a common goal: the promotion of democracy.
 

Furthermore, the Congress focused on the need to update the tools and goals of political nonviolence, democratic hope and the universal affirmation of human rights. It also discussed the concepts of European and world federalism as alternatives to the degeneration of liberal democracies towards what Marco Pannella, President of the Senate of the Nonviolent Radical Party, calls 'real democracies'.
 

Speakers and participants of the Congress congratulated the recent success stories of Tunisia and Egypt, yet were vigilant in paying tribute to many nations continuing to live under the rule of oppressive governments. The Congress strongly expressed the need to counter “the persistent illusion of absolute national sovereignty, and the eventual systematic cancellation of human rights that have been historically acquired and are now perceived as natural".