At the end of every April, a small drama plays out in the UN Security Council. This is when the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO, its French acronym) comes up for its annual renewal. Western Sahara — Africa’s last colony according to the United Nations — is largely ignored by the Security Council the other eleven months of the year.

Read more >>

$10 entry / Students by donation
Music, Drinks and Nibbles
Organised by Australia Western Sahara Association and Sydney University Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies

Join us for an evening with Saharawi human rights activist, Malak Amidan, as she talks about the situation in Western Sahara, one of the longest and most neglected conflicts of our time.

Malak will expose the systematic political, environmental, social and cultural human rights abuses endured by the people of Western Sahara

Follow on Facebook >>

Event flyer.pdf >>

Malak Amidan >>

Green Left Weekly, Thursday, April 26, 2012
By Ryan Mallett-Outtrim, Adelaide

Sahrawi human rights advocate and trade unionist Malak Amidane will visit Australia this month to share her experience of campaigning for justice in her homeland.

Read article >>

“91. Recalls its resolution of 25 November 2010 on the situation in Western Sahara; condemns the ongoing repression of Sahrawi people in the occupied territories and calls for their fundamental rights, including freedom of association, freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate, to be respected; calls for the release of the 80 Sahrawi political prisoners and, as a matter of priority, of the 23 who have been held without trial in Salé prison following the dismantling of the Gdeim Izik camp; reiterates its call for the establishment of an international mechanism to monitor human rights in the Western Sahara and for a fair and lasting settlement of the conflict on the basis of the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people, in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions;”

European Parliament resolution >>

Press Release from the Polisario Front Representation for Europe

On W. Sahara, Not Answering on Morocco Lobbying, UN Decries Leaks to Press

UN Officials Blame France for Ban’s Whitewash of Restrictions in Western Sahara, Threats of Retaliation

On W. Sahara, France Downplays Rights & Free Movement, King to Visit?

On Western Sahara, France Says Only 1 “Friend Has Problems,” Draft Not Agreed?

The Arab Spring began in the Western Sahara. In late 2010, the indigenous Saharawi population of this territory demonstrated against the occupying Moroccan authorities. Their demonstrations were violently put down. Eleven Saharawis were killed.

Read more >>

Nick Clegg faces embarrassment after it was disclosed that his wife represents a firm that has been accused of trampling on the human rights of ‘Africa’s last colony’.

A ‘substantial’ part of lawyer Miriam Clegg’s work, for which she is paid up to £500,000 a year, is understood to come from Moroccan mining giant OCP.

Read more  >>