NCRI – The Canadian Council for Refugees, the umbrella organization on rights and protection of refugees worldwide, in a resolution called on the “Government of Canada to oppose forcible relocation or any other mistreatment of the residents of Camp Ashraf in violation of international standards.”

“The protection and humane treatment of the residents of Camp Ashraf is a matter of international concern which justifies monitoring by the Multinational Forces while they remain in Iraq and afterwards by the international community once the Multinational Forces leave,” the resolution reiterates.

Text of the resolution titled “Camp Ashraff” adopted by Canadian Council for Refugees follows:

Canadian Council for Refugees

Camp Ashraf

WHEREAS:

1. There are 3400 Iranian dissidents in Iraq at Camp Ashraf who were granted protected persons status under the Fourth Geneva Convention by the Multinational Forces in Iraq. In December 2008 protection of the Camp was handed over to the Government of Iraq;

2. In January 2009, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al Rubaie threatened to make life "intolerable" for the residents of Camp Ashraf in order to spur them to leave Iraq;

3. Among Al Rubaie's threats was the forcible relocation of the residents from the Camp, where they have lived for more than two decades and constructed a fully developed town, to an empty desert near the Saudi Arabia border;

4. Both Amnesty International (AI Index: MDE 14/012/2009 20 April 2009) and the European Parliament (resolution April 24, 2009) have protested Al Rubaie's threat of intolerable treatment;

5. The recent introduction of a large police force into Camp Ashraf despite the presence of both the Iraqi and US military at the Camp has alarmed the international community;

6. George Okkoth-Obbo, Director of International Protection, UNHCR, in March 2007 asked the Government of Iraq to refrain from any action that could endanger the life or security of the residents of Camp Ashraf such as their forcible displacement inside Iraq;

THEERFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the CCR:

1. Call on the Government of Canada to oppose forcible relocation or any other mistreatment of the residents of Camp Ashraf in violation of international standards, and to assert that the protection and humane treatment of the residents of Camp Ashraf is a matter of international concern which justifies monitoring by the Multinational Forces while they remain in Iraq and afterwards by the international community once the Multinational Forces leave.

2. ask the UNHCR to reiterate its 2007 statement about forcible displacement in light of the current situation.