Society for Threatened Peoples

The Society for Threatened Peoples Germany emerged in 1970 from the Hamburg-based "Aktion Biafra-Hilfe." Aktion Biafra-Hilfe was founded in June 1968 by Tilman Zülch and Klaus Guerke during the Biafra War to draw attention of the world to the occurrences within Biafra in present-day Nigeria and to stop the hunger and genocide going on there.{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} Zülch went to the area to witness the atrocities and eventually wrote a book together with Klaus Guerke.{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} The experience campaigning for the protection of the victims and refugees encouraged campaigns for other minorities transforming Aktion Biafra-Hilfe into the Society for Threatened Peoples-Germany.{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}}

In 1978 the headquarters of the Society for Threatened Peoples Germany moved from Hamburg to Göttingen.

Since 1993 the STP has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The STPI is also a Member organization of Committee for a Democratic UN. Since January 2005 the STPI also has participatory status at the Council of Europe.

The STPI is one of several European minority rights organizations. In December 2011, the organization had 5774 members and 675 sponsors, most of whom are based in Germany. The organization's activities are coordinated in Göttingen. Regional groups support the work of the STP-Germany in a few German cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Münster and Nuremberg. The STPI publishes press releases, organizes public demonstrations, arranges post card fund raising campaigns, prepares reports for court hearings,{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} produces educational materials for teachers,{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} and publishes the journal "Pogrom", which is a source of information about the situation of ethnic and religious minorities.

Since its founding, a main focus of the human rights work of the STP, has been the African continent;{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} though the STPI is not represented by a section. Since the Yugoslav wars the STPI has been disproportionately active in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Kosovo. In Kosovo the STP-Germany paid for a team that, under the direction of the human rights worker Paul Polansky, worked for the interests of the Roma. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the support of the survivors of the Srebrenica Massacre is particularly important for the German chapter of the STPI. Another focus of the STPI is indigenous peoples. Renate Domnick, a volunteer for the STP-Germany, organized the first large European trip of an Indian delegation from 16 American countries. In the Middle East the Kurds play an important role for the STP: This pushed the STP-Germany to open a STPI office in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}}

Prominent supporters of STP-Germany include: the writer and futurologist Robert Jungk,{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}}, the author Günter Grass,{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} former German chancellor Willy Brandt,{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} current President of East Timor José Ramos-Horta, and Marek Edelman a leader in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.{{cite web |url=http://www.gfbv.de/promis.php |title=Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker |publisher=Gfbv.de |access-date=5 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110301165325/http://www.gfbv.de/promis.php |archive-date=1 March 2011 }}

The Society for Threatened Peoples places the fight against genocide, forced migration, racism, all forms of minority oppression, and deportation of refugees in their country of origin as the center of their work. Their themes include the cultural and religious groupings like the Falun Gong in China, the Christian minorities in Iran, or ethnic groups like the Roma or Chechen. The Society for Threatened Peoples lobbies politicians and uses letter writing campaigns to apply pressure for its causes.

The Society for Threatened Peoples has always maintained that forced migration, today often known as ethnic cleansing, of people is wrong and constitutes a crime. The Society for Threatened Peoples has advocated for a Centre against Expulsions.{{cite web|url=https://www.welt.de/print-welt/article404889/Steinbach_Zentrum_gegen_Vertreibungen_bis_2007.html |title=Steinbach: Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen bis 2007 |publisher=Welt.de |date=23 November 2011 |accessdate=5 April 2013}}

The Society for Threatened Peoples has in special situations supported military interventions. The society supported the NATO intervention in the Kosovo War in 1999. In 2006 the Society for Threatened Peoples supported the protection of elections in the Congo by the German military.

• "Society for Threatened Peoples" in Lawson, Edward, Encyclopedia of Human Rights, New York : Taylor & Francis, 1991. {{ISBN|978-0-8002-8003-1}}

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{{Commons category|Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker}}

• [http://www.gfbv.de/index.php?change_lang=english Society for Threatened Peoples website]

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Category:Human rights organisations based in Germany

Category:Göttingen

Category:1970 establishments in West Germany

Category:Organizations with participatory status with the Council of Europe

Category:Non-profit organisations based in Lower Saxony

Category:Organizations established in 1970

Category:International human rights organizations