Representing the Unrepresented : the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation; a new form of post-national governance?

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2010-02
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en
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Abstract
The importance of the nation-state is profoundly contested since we live in times of intensified globalisation. At the same time, many people still feel attached to, and identify with, their nation-state. The nation-state, with its triple alliance of citizenship rights, national identity and territorial sovereignty (Papadopoulos, Stephenson & Tsianos, 2008), still decides who belongs and who does not belong to it and is still the main form of political representation. This thesis, however, focuses on the situation of people falling outside the framework of the nation-state; people who are not represented by the nation-state while they live in the state’s territory; and/or people who do not identify themselves with the same nation-state. Hence, this thesis can be seen as an in-depth analysis of unrepresentedness. It discusses theoretically the problem of unrepresentedness and links this to the problems, claims and strategies of unrepresented nations and peoples in practice. In this context this thesis deals with the strategies of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) as well as with the problems and claims of its members. The UNPO was founded to create access to ways of representation transcending the nation-state for groups that are unrepresented on a national level. Since these groups lack a voice within the nation-state, they are almost automatically excluded from the international fora since the nation-state is still the sovereign representing body in these international fora, of which the United Nations (UN) is the best example. The UNPO, as a network organisation, brings together 56 members.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen