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for Abdelrazik

Listen to an audio statement from Abousfian Abdelrazik on April 1st, 2009 by clicking the play button below. You can download the MP3 here.

Delegation calls on blacklist representatives to delist Abousfian Abdelrazik

1267-Committee representative asks Mr. Abdelrazik to trust in the delisting process

Delegation and activists outside UN to denounce blacklist in solidarity with Abousfian Abdelrazik

16 June 2011, New York --Members of a 7-person Canadian delegation met this morning with representatives of the UN committee that holds Canadian Abousfian Abdelrazik's life in its hands. The Security Council 1267-Committee has the power to add and remove people from a UN blacklist which has kept Mr. Abdelrazik under severe sanctions - a travel ban and an asset freeze - for almost five years.

The Canadian delegation, representing seven organizations and backed by almost 100 organizations from across Canada, delivered a strong message that Mr. Abdelrazik should be immediately removed from the blacklist and that the blacklisting regime itself should be scrapped, as being wholly at odds with UN principles expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In the unprecedented meeting, delegation members provided the spokespeople with a video message from Mr. Abdelrazik, a letter co-signed by the 100 supporting organizations, and letters from a broad range of individuals across Canada who have openly defied the 1267 blacklist sanctions by making a donation to Mr. Abdelrazik, an act which is illegal in Canada, and carries a sentence of up to ten years in prison.

In his video message, Mr. Abdelrazik addressed the chair of the committee, "I invite you and the rest of the committee to walk in my shoes. I invite you to come to live with me for one day and to see the suffering. Then, when you go back to New York, I am sure - because you are a human being - i am sure you going to change your mind. ... I address the humanity in you to do the justice for me. Please, I suffer enough. I want the end to this suffereing. And i know it is in your hand, the decision it is in your hand."

The Security Council will meet tomorrow morning to decide whether or not to renew the mandate of the 1267 Regime Ombudsperson and the Monitoring Group and will consider a series of reforms intended to respond to criticisms about the complete lack of fairness and transparency of the 1267 Blacklisting Regime. The 1267-Committee is also in the process of considering removing Taliban members from the list as part of a political agreement in Afghanistan, further throwing into question the purpose and future of the list. The delegation sent a letter to members of the Security Council requesting permission to participate in these meetings but received no response.

The delegation in support of Mr. Abdelrazik is backed by a broad spectrum of groups, including faith-based groups, labour unions, community groups, women's associations and student groups from across Canada. In the United States, the President of the 12.5 million member union, the AFL-CIO, also sent a letter to the Chair of the 1267-Committee calling for Mr. Abdelrazik to be removed from the list and the blacklisting system to be abolished.

The seven delegates are: Ms. Emilie Breton, Project Fly Home; Ms. Dolores Chew, South Asian Women's Community Centre; Mr. Karl Flecker, Canadian Labour Congress; Ms. Nicole Leach, Regina Solidarity Group; Mr. James Loney, Christian Peacemaker Teams; Mr. Pierre Jasmin, Artists for Peace; and Mr. Sameer Zuberi, Canadian Muslim Forum. (See delegate biographies)

It is almost impossible to get off the blacklist, or even to know why you are on it - a situation which led Canadian Federal Court Justice Russel Zinn to refer to the regime as "Kafka-esque". Mr. Abdelrazik is challenging the legality of the regime in Canada and is also suing the Canadian government for the role it played in his arbitrary detention, torture and exile in Sudan.

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For interviews with delegation:
Emilie Breton (FR) or James Loney (EN), 514 616 6924
Dolores Chew, 514 885 5976

More information (in Montreal):
Mary Foster, 514 222 0205

Source:
Project Fly Home - People's Commission Network
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projectflyhome@gmail.com

Select coverage of delegation in Canadian media: