We are in Bogota, Colombia, with a copy of the petition (almost 23,000 signatures).

Our aim here is to deliver it (which carries your name - thank you) to Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO. 

The decision to delist the Aalst Carnival is likely to be made on Thursday December 12.

Meanwhile we will brief as many international delegations as possible making the following points:

1. the UNESCO Secretariat has already condemned the antisemitic and racist manifestations at the 2013 and 2017 Aalst Carnivals, and is strongly recommending delisting to the 24 members of the ICH Committee;
2. there is a difference between caricature (accentuating a real characteristic) and stereotyping (attributing a false characteristic and applying it to all members of a group);
3. it is one thing to mock the powerful, but quite another to mock a vulnerable minority;
4. the offending float at the 2017 carnival was antisemitic under the IHRA definition, which Belgium has adopted.

Our two latest press releases are here and here.

Do get in touch - info@im-pac.org

We will let you know on Thursday what happens.

The IMPAC team