Madeira, Portugal | 9–11 May 2025
UNPO Hosts Landmark Conference to Reimagine Self-Determination for a Changing World
From 9 to 11 May 2025, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) successfully hosted its Re-Imagining Self-Determination Conference in Madeira, Portugal, bringing together UNPO members, grassroots leaders, scholars, policymakers, and international experts from across the globe. This historic gathering marked a bold step forward in confronting the rising global threats faced by unrepresented peoples and redefining self-determination as a cornerstone for peace, inclusion, and justice.
In her opening address, UNPO President Dr. Rubina Greenwood called for a fundamental rethinking of self-determination, not as a source of division or instability, but as a pathway to peace, legitimacy, and dignity. As she stated, “This conference is not only about reclaiming a right. It is about reimagining how that right can be pursued, with dialogue, diplomacy, and solidarity.”
The conference fulfilled its ambitious aims: laying the foundation for a global framework for peaceful self-determination, forging lasting alliances between communities, advocates, institutions, and scholars, and reclaiming space for unrepresented peoples to shape their own narratives and futures on the global stage.
Over the course of three days, participants engaged in deep and urgent discussions, reflecting the diverse and pressing realities of stateless nations, Indigenous communities, and peoples facing systemic exclusion. Sessions explored themes such as digital repression, neocolonialism, environmental justice, and cultural survival. The UNPO’s wide-ranging programme included panels moderated by leading global experts such as Prof. Fiona McConnell, Dr. Tenzin Dorjee, Prof. John Packer, and Dr. Michael van Walt van Praag, among others.
These discussions affirmed UNPO’s role as a key international platform for solidarity, among peoples, but also with committed scholars, civil society actors, and institutions willing to challenge outdated geopolitical assumptions and rebuild a more just, inclusive, and pluralistic global order.
The UNPO extends its heartfelt thanks to all members, participants and speakers, whose wisdom, lived experiences, and courage made the conference possible. Special gratitude goes to our gracious hosts at Quinta Palmeira, and to our partner institutions for their unwavering support. Your contributions have made this gathering a truly transformational moment.
As global geopolitics continue to shift, UNPO is also evolving, opening new strategic pathways, reinforcing multilateral advocacy, and strengthening cooperation among communities seeking recognition, rights, and respect.
In the coming weeks, UNPO will publish a series of outcomes, reflections, and forward-looking strategies emerging from the conference. We invite all members, allies, researchers, policymakers, and community leaders to not only stay informed, but to actively engage with us as we work to move these vital conversations forward. The path to a fairer future lies in unity, dialogue, and peace.
As Dr. Greenwood reminded us, “We do not ask for permission to exist. We assert our right to thrive. We accept the international system. We demand that it include us. And we will not wait for justice, together, we will build it. This is our moment. Let this be the turning point in the global recognition of unrepresented peoples. Let it mark the beginning of a future that we define through peace, unity, and determination.”
Speech by Dr. Rubina Greenwood
President, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO)
Re-Imagining Self-Determination Conference – Madeira, Portugal | 9 May 2025
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, community leaders, scholars, and courageous voices from unrepresented nations around the world,
Welcome to the Re-Imagining Self-Determination Conference. We are gathered here not merely as delegates of separate causes, but as one global movement—united by shared histories, fortified by resilience, and bound by a universal truth: that every nation has the right to shape its destiny—peacefully, lawfully, and with dignity.
Today, across continents, the right to self-determination faces renewed threats. Authoritarian regimes suppress communities. Resource-driven conflicts displace families. Land dispossession, cultural erasure, and economic marginalization endanger the survival of historic nations and Indigenous peoples. And now, surveillance technologies, disinformation campaigns, and militarized governance threaten to silence voices before they are ever heard.
At the root of these challenges is a deeper systemic issue: a world order born in the aftermath of the two World Wars that recognized some nations while erasing others. Borders were drawn with power, not justice, and entire peoples were rendered invisible.
Today, we say clearly: that system has failed.
It is time for change.
It is time for justice.
It is time to reclaim our future.
Since 1991, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization has stood as a unique platform for those denied recognition—stateless nations, occupied territories, Indigenous communities, and peoples cast aside by geopolitical deals. We are not the margins of history. We are its rightful participants.
But the path to self-determination must not be marked by violence or chaos. It must be grounded in peace, legality, and legitimacy. That is why we call today for a global, peaceful framework for achieving self-determination, rooted in international law, aligned with the UN Charter, and informed by the lived realities of those silenced.
It is important to remember that the “right to self-determination” has two essential components. First, it is a right recognized under international law that belongs to every group of people, nation, or sub-state nation. Second, it is about self-determination—the ability of a people or nation to choose their path, based on their unique historical, political, economic, and geographic realities. Exercising this right may mean remaining within an existing state with varying degrees of autonomy, negotiating new federal arrangements, or pursuing complete independence and statehood.
I have also observed with concern that even within so-called progressive and human rights–oriented circles, particularly among majority communities and hegemonic states, the right to self-determination is often undermined. It is dismissed under various slogans: “Marxist class struggle,” “regional security,” or “preventing state disintegration.” This paternalism resembles the colonial elite attitudes of the 19th and 20th centuries, where claims to know best denied fundamental rights.
Let us not repeat the mistakes of former colonial powers who, even after granting independence, continued to steer, limit, or manipulate the destinies of once-colonized nations. Real solutions must be peaceful, but they must also be genuine reflecting the democratic will of the people seeking self-determination. While doing so, we must never compromise on the fundamental obligation to protect human rights, including the rights of minorities, within the universal framework established by the United Nations.
This conference is not only about reclaiming a right.
It is about reimagining how that right can be pursued—with dialogue, diplomacy, and solidarity.
It is about restoring the legitimacy of self-determination, not as a threat to peace, but as its foundation.
And it is about putting unrepresented peoples where they belong—at the heart of global governance.
Let us be honest: we cannot rely on global powers to speak for us any more. Too often, they have profited from our silence. Today, UNPO members are each other’s most steadfast allies. Our struggles are not isolated, they are interconnected. Your cause is my cause. My freedom is bound to yours.
Through this dialogue, we seek to:
- Launch the creation of a formal and adaptable Framework for Peaceful Self-Determination, supported by legal, institutional, and political instruments.
- Forge lasting alliances among communities, scholars, human rights advocates, and decision-makers.
- Reclaim the space to tell our stories, define our terms, and shape our futures.
We do not ask for permission to exist. We assert our right to thrive.
We accept the international system. We demand that it include us.
And we will not wait for justice. Together, we will build it.
This is our moment.
Let this be the turning point in the global recognition of unrepresented peoples.
Let it mark the beginning of a future that we define through peace, unity, and determination.
Friends, this is not just a moment of reflection—it is a call to action.
From Sindh to Tibet, from West Papua to Catalonia, from Balochistan to East Turkestan—our struggles are not isolated. They are woven together by the same threads of injustice, exclusion, and erasure. What happens to one of us reverberates across all of us.
When a language is silenced in one corner of the world, a culture dies elsewhere.
When one community is stripped of its land, another loses its future.
When a nation is denied the right to decide its destiny, the very idea of freedom is diminished for us all.
We are bound together—not just by pain, but by purpose.
Our Struggle is urgent because authoritarianism is expanding, the climate crisis is accelerating displacement, and digital suppression is outpacing diplomacy. If we do not act now, we risk losing entire peoples, entire histories, and entire hopes.
So let us rise—together.
Not as fragmented voices, but as a united force.
Let us turn our solidarity into strategy.
Let us transform our shared grief into global resolve.
We do not gather here to wait for change.
We are the change. We are the tide. We are the turning point.
Let this conference send a message that cannot be ignored:
The age of invisibility is over. The future will be self-determined—by us, for us, and with justice at its core.
Thank you.
Ms. Rubina Greenwood, UNPO President
Madeira, 10th May 2025
