At its meeting on October 16, 2015, the Creative Commons Board of Directors unanimously approved the following motion:

Consensus Resolution re: Bassel Safadi 

WHEREAS: Creative Commons is hosting its bi-annual Global Summit in Seoul, South Korea from Oct 15-17, 2015, an event that has previously been attended by Bassel Khartabil, where he was an active and valued contributor, and where he is today profoundly missed by his friends and colleagues.

WHEREAS: Mr. Khartabil has served faithfully and diligently as the Public Lead of CC Syria since 2009, and among other immeasurable contributions:

• Built Aiki Lab Community Center in Damascus that has hosted talks from key figures in the open web movement in support of Creative Commons communities in the Arab region;

• Volunteered on countless free culture projects including Creative Commons, Mozilla, Wikipedia, and Openclipart;

• Participated in and was a leader of several Creative Commons Arab Regional Meetings, including work to forge a unified Arabic translation of important CC licensing and public domain concepts;

• Was named in 2012 as a one of the Top Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy for insisting on a peaceful Syrian revolution; and

• Was awarded by Index on Censorship the Digital Freedom Award in 2013.

WHEREAS: Mr. Khartabil’s contributions to Creative Commons have always inspired collaboration, community, and the sharing of culture and knowledge, including his leadership in the development of the #NewPalmyra, and his activism and involvement in the CC community and open internet community is deeply missed since his arrest and imprisonment without trial or assistance of counsel in March 2012.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: that the Board of Directors hereby calls on Mr. Khartabil’s captors for his immediate and safe release.