Hargeisa(Hayaannews): Edna Adan Was Elected the new president of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and also Elisenda Palusie Catalonia, was elected the first vice president,UNPO was founded in 1991 and it advocates for marginalized communities, the organization also works on human rights, democracy, and the right to self-determination.
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is an international movement and organization established to empower the voices of unrepresented and marginalized peoples worldwide and to protect their rights to self-determination.
The peoples represented within the UNPO membership are all united by one shared condition: they are denied equal representation in the institutions of national or international governance. As a consequence, their opportunity to participate on the national or international stage is limited, and they struggle to fully realize their rights to civil and political participation and to control their economic, social and cultural development. In many cases, they are subject to the worst forms of violence and repression.
UNPO is a unique presence in the international arena in that it is built and primarily funded by its members. This gives it a strong connection to those suffering the consequences of the exclusion that the organization seeks to address. And it means that UNPO is able to address issues that often remain hidden because UNPO has the freedom to raise issues that others cannot due to political or funding constraints.
The organization consists of a General Assembly of members, which serves as a deliberative body for decision making, solidarity, and standard-setting among unrepresented nations and peoples, and a number of Foundations established to provide secretariat services for the General Assembly and to improve the respect for the rights of unrepresented peoples everywhere through research, education and public campaigns.
The History
The Government of Somaliland has been a member of UNPO since 2004. Currently, the members’ countries are 44 since then, UNPO’s membership has grown steadily from its original founders, with membership from more than 45 people worldwide, comprising over 300 million people lacking true representation in domestic or international forums. Since its founding, many members have achieved their movement’s goals and found a formal seat for their people at the national or international level and have, thus, left the organization as their peoples are no longer considered to be “unrepresented”. More history of the organization, including charts of its past and current membership, can be found on its Wikipedia page.
UNPO General Assembly & Presidency
The General Assembly, composed of delegations of UNPO members, serves as the deliberative body of the UNPO. It meets every eighteen months and provides a forum for members to share experiences, successes, and issues, and to reaffirm their commitments to the principles of the UNPO Covenant to which each member must subscribe:
- The equal right of all peoples to self-determination;
- Adherence to internationally-accepted human rights standards;
- Adherence to the principles of democratic pluralism and rejection of intolerance;
- Promotion of non-violence and the rejection of terrorism and violence as instruments of policy;
- Protection of the natural environment.
It is also a venue for considering specific topics of concern and for the adoption of Member-specific resolutions that help to set standards related to the rights of unrepresented peoples.
The General Assembly discusses the achievements and shortcomings in the organization’s performance since the previous Assembly and agrees on strategies and membership issues. In addition, the General Assembly elects the Presidency Members and the organization’s President, and two Vice-Presidents. It also elects the General Secretary and the Treasurer for a mandate of three years.
UNPO’s Presidency is composed of eight members, in addition to a President and two Vice-Presidents. The Presidency supervises the implementation of the overall policy of the organization during its term, as mandated by the Assembly, and is tasked with monitoring the compliance of UNPO members (current and prospective) with the Covenant of the UNPO. Certain members of the Presidency sit on boards of the UNPO Foundations, to ensure that the work of the Foundations is in line with their statutory purpose and goals, and overall strategy.
Who’s Edna Adam?
THE MIDWIFE WHO CHANGED THE WORLD, THE IRON LADY, A WOMAN OF FIRSTS Dr. EDNA ADAM ISMAIL
Edna Adan was born in Hargeisa, the daughter of a prominent Somali medical doctor, and was trained as a nurse in the United Kingdom at the Borough Polytechnic Edna Adan has led a life filled with firsts. She was the first woman from Somalia to study in the UK and the first qualified-nurse midwife in her country, as well as the first female foreign minister and one of the first in the world to speak out publicly about the horrors of female genital mutilation (FGM).and the first Somali woman to drive She was the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Nursing Adviser in 1986. From 1987 to 1991, she was Regional Technical Officer for Mother and Child Health, with responsibility for issues relating to harmful traditional practices which affect the health of women and children (such as female Genital Mutilation ), and for the training of Midwives and Traditional Birth Attendants in the 22 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO. Afterward, she was the representative of WHO in Djibouti between 1991 and 1997.
She spent her life fighting for women’s rights, even cashing in her World Health Organization (WHO) pension to build the first maternity hospital in her country.
She returned to Somaliland and she sold all of her possessions to pursue her dream of opening her own hospital and built from scratch a maternity hospital, which she continues to run. The Edna Adan Maternity Hospital officially opened on March 9, 2002, inland donated to her by the regional government at a site formerly used as a garbage dump.
The region lacked trained nurses to staff the hospital as most had either fled the country or been killed during the civil war – and so Edna recruited more than 30 candidates and began training them in 2000 while the hospital was still under construction. The hospital now has two operating theatres, a laboratory, a library, a computer center, and a complete wing dedicated to training nurses and midwives.
The mission of the Edna Adan Hospital is to help to improve the health of the local inhabitants, in particular the high rate of maternal and infant mortality. The facility is a non-profit making charity and a midwifery teaching hospital that is also undertaking the training of student nurses and Assistant Laboratory Technicians she opened Edna Adan University in 2012, For Adan, her Scholarly achievements made her accountable to the Women and girls of Somaliland and gave her the ability to create educational opportunities that previously may not have been able to be realized, besides giving her a new purpose in life, the Edna Adan University gave her a new purpose in life Hospital has also become a platform from where she can influence educational in her country, where she can encourage girls to go to the schools In recognition of her lifelong contribution to Humanitarian work, the name of Edna Adan Ismail was added to the Medical Mission Hall of Fame, University of Toledo Ohio, in March 2007. She has an Honorary Doctoral Degree from Clark University in Massachusetts and was made Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University School of Nursing in Wales on July 8, 2008.
In 2012 Edna Adan has featured in the documentary Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide premiering on PBS on October 1 and 2. The series introduces women and girls living under very difficult circumstances and bravely fighting to challenge them. The Half the Sky PBS TV series is produced by Show of Force along with Fugitive Films.
She has been called “The Muslim Mother Teresa” by The Huffington Post She won the Global Citizen Movement Awards on 28 September 2012, the award was presented to four outstanding individuals who embody the diversity of efforts and resources that are needed to achieve our generation’s Common goal: the end of extreme poverty The University of Pretoria accepted the Chancellor’s Medal for her outstanding contribution to humanity and particularly with regards to helping the underprivileged people of Somaliland to realize there to health
Gulaid Yusuf Iidaan
Hargeisa, Somaliland
Email: Idaan54@gmail.com
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