Youssef Nada - Parliamentary Assembly of The Council of Europe Defense

Parliamentary Assembly of The Council of Europe Defense

The case of Nada, which was presented to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) by Swiss Senator Dick Marty, was presented as being "like a page out of Kafka". Investigations of the Nada case, and the injustices suffered by Nada, who has never been proven to have any links to Al Qaeda, nor the Taliban, were the focal point of a two-year PACE human rights investigation. During this investigation, the UN SC 1276, and other UN terror-blacklisting programs, came under harsh scrutiny and criticism.

"Even the members of the committee which decides on blacklisting are not given all the reasons for blacklisting particular persons or groups. Usually, those persons or groups are not told that blacklisting has been requested, given a hearing or even, in some cases, informed of the decision – until they try to cross a frontier or use a bank account. There is no provision for independent review of these decisions".

The PACE concluded that then (and still current) terror blacklisting procedures were unworthy of the UN and EU. Criticisms were levied stating that these kind of injustices did not help to fight terrorism, but to promote popular frustrations by persecuting persons without justice and transparency. A series of reports came-forth from the meeting.

In 2010, the PACE wrote letter to the President of the Court of Human Rights, requesting that they be able to provide third-party submissions in support of Nada's case against Switzerland.