Free Republic of Verdis, USA News (New York): A 21-year-old Briton who founded his own nation has been honoured by the United Nations for humanitarian efforts. Daniel Jackson, from Kent, first conceived the idea of creating his own country at age 14. He and a group of friends discovered a border dispute had left several parcels of land along the Danube River unclaimed by either Croatia or Serbia. On May 30, 2019, Mr Jackson formally declared one of these territories, identified on official maps as Pocket-3, the Free Republic of Verdis, appointing himself president.
Despite spanning roughly 125 acres, making it the world’s second-smallest country after Vatican City, Verdis maintains two embassies, one in Dover and another in Novi Sad, Serbia, and counts 400 official citizens. The micronation now boasts its own passports, flag, coat of arms, a full cabinet, and a body of law, with English, Croatian, and Serbian as official languages and the euro as currency. Its online presence has attracted enormous interest, generating more than 1,000 emails each month from people seeking citizenship, although its tiny size means it must carefully ration applications.
Seven years after its founding, the self-declared head of state has received an award at a UN gala in New York for aid work his fledgling nation has undertaken in the Ivory Coast. The Institute of Public Policy and Diplomacy Research bestowed the recognition. Mr Jackson delivered a speech upon accepting the award in the UN Delegates’ dining hall at the organisation’s headquarters.
“It definitely was intense. It was a very interesting experience. There were quite a lot of high-end people there. It was very nerve-wracking,” he told the New York Post. “Being only 21 years old, I am still sort of getting used to this experience of turning up to these events with such interesting and influential people,” he said.
Following the gala, Verdis secured an invitation to address the United Nations General Assembly Youth Mobilisation Segment on October 9. Jeffrey Li, the micronation’s humanitarian affairs minister at the UN, took to the floor that day, outlining both past achievements and future aspirations.
“Having the opportunity to have my colleague speak directly at the UNGA youth forum was amazing,” Mr Jackson said. “It allowed him to open up more connections for Verdis, particularly around youth involvement, aid, and things like that.” “Every time we go to New York, we always get a decent amount of dialogue and connections,” he said.
The land encompassing Verdis is accessible only by boat from the city of Osijek, Croatia. Croatian authorities have effectively blockaded the micronation, banning Mr Jackson from entering and installing cameras along the Verdisian coastline to prevent access from the Serbian side. He described the situation as operating as a “government in exile” but still claimed that his country was “thriving”.
“We are making a lot of progress, but we are still blockaded. Croatia are still quite tough on us. They have really cracked down regarding Verdis government officials being able to enter Verdis.” Relations with Belgrade have proved more promising, with Mr Jackson having been granted Serbian citizenship.
Mr Jackson, who identifies as both British and Australian, gave up his previous job designing virtual worlds on Roblox to dedicate himself full-time to Verdis. “Verdis was an idea I had when I was 14; it was just a bit of an experiment at first with a few mates… To the naked eye, it is just a lot of forest, but when you realise that you are in a country you have created, it is magical,” he said.
