Facts:
- International Students’ Association (ISA) represents international graduate and undergraduate students from 102 countries..
- ISA Mission states “We provide services and programs that foster a sense of community and are aligned with student interests by being inclusive and equitable.”
- ISA Vision states that it “aim[s] at representing the diverse prospects of our community.”
- ISA's mandate is to represent students to universities and Canadian municipal, provincial and federal governments, thus picking sides on global politics or issues shall always lead ISA to pick a few students' interests over others, which is against its mission and vision statement.
Resolutions:
- The International Students’ Association (ISA) shall not support any protest against any foreign government.
- The International Students’ Association (ISA) shall not condemn actions of any foreign government or entity.
- The International Students’ Association (ISA) shall stay politically neutral on global politics or foreign affairs of any nation other than Canada.
- The International Students’ Association (ISA) shall support the students by providing dedicated services and programs, to support students mentally and emotionally as a response to tragic foreign country politics.
Background:
Nigeria had national unrest, the Nigerian Students Association initiated a protest in Edmonton. ISA was approached by NSA to support the protest, however, ISA decided to not get involved as we didn't want to set precedence for the future. ISA worked with a peer support center to set up dedicated support meetings for Nigerian students.
India had massive farmers' protests, students from India wanted ISA to release a statement, however, ISA decided not to get involved.
Hong Kong had massive protests and ISA stayed neutral.
Thus supporting one could open the door for ISA to have to support others, and when we refuse to support, the students shall feel left out or not treated fairly under principles of equality.
Ultimately, ISA decided to make this policy, so it never participates in protests or condemning that is motivated against a foreign nation.
ISA however did provide support to Ukrainian Students' Society (USS) to host a rally on campus during Russia/Ukrain 2022 war. Our support was very limited as we helped them with getting permission from DOS for rally and provided them media contacts, so the rally is covered by media, ISA execs also attended the rally in solidarity along with SU Execs. We also shared USS posts as stories. However, we did not post, be co-host, or had an active part in the rally as we wanted to be mindful of Russian students on campus. Due to this precedence, the ISA should support students who want to stand up for their community but ISA must not take the beacon and stand up itself for any particular country's students due to this policy.
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