An international organization, modelled on the United Nations Organization, that was established in 1991 to represent ethnic or minority groups aspiring to nationhood. Representatives from Tibet, which has been occupied by Chinese troops since 1951 and made into a province of China, were prominent in the founding of the association. Other members include Australian Aborigines, the Lakota Sioux people of North America, and many peoples of the former Soviet Union (including the Caucasian republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia, seeking independence from Russia, and Abkhazia, hoping to secede from Georgia).