Dear UNPO Members and friends,

In the month of August, UNPO benefited from the European Parliament's recess to reorganise its work, following up on the decisions taken by the UNPO General Assembly in early July and planning the activities for the coming months. 

In early August, UNPO convened the 7th edition of its SpeakOut! training in The Hague, a programme of interactive workshops for youth from unrepresented nations and peoples with a deep interest in human rights advocacy. In addition, UNPO co-signed a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry published by Freedom House, strongly condemning the actions of the Mauritanian Government in the case of former UNPO Presidency Member and anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid. Moreover, following UNPO's advocacy efforts, a parliamentary question on Lake Urmia was submitted to the European Commission by Members of the European Parliament.

In September, in addition to restarting its advocacy efforts at the European Parliament, UNPO organised a side-event to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, to discuss the human rights situation of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran following the recent nuclear agreement. Later in the month, also in Geneva, UNPO convened the first workshop on UN lobbying for diplomats from unrepresented nations, the kick-off of a larger training programme in collaboration with the University of Oxford and Tibet Justice Center.  On the eve of Catalan National Day and only a few weeks before the Catalonian elections, UNPO also took part in a conference in Barcelona entitled "Democracy and European Emerging Values: The Right to Decide", in a panel that discussed the concept of self-determination from different points of view.

Last but not least, UNPO launched a design competition to decide on the new logo for its International Campaign Against Slavery (iCAS), started in January 2014.

For more details and information about our past and upcoming events, please download the newsletter here.