Monthly Archives: February 2015

19-20 March 2015:Conference, Melbourne ‘Natural Resources-the Key to Western Sahara’s Future’

Natural Resources : the Key to Western Sahara’s Future
19-20 March 2015 in Melbourne

International conference with Mouloud Said, Sultana Khaya, Stephen Zunes, Damien Kingsbury, Ben Saul, Erik Hagen, Kamal Fadel…

Program:

Thursday 19 March – Conference Dinner Keynote speaker Mouloud Said – the Saharawi Minister Delegate in charge of Asia and the Pacific. Former Saharawi Representative to the United Nations and to the Organization of African Unity (OAU)

Friday 20 March – Conference speakers at CQ, 113 Queen Street, Melbourne

Hosted by Deakin University’s Centre for Citizenship, Development and Human Rights in conjunction with the Australia Western Sahara Association

See:
Conference program
Registration and further details

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AWSA letter condemns Board of Crans Montana Forum decision

12 February 2015
To the Board of Crans Montana Forum

I am writing on behalf of the Australia Western Sahara Association to condemn your decision to hold the annual Crans Montana Forum in Dakhla in the occupied territory of Western Sahara and to urge you to reschedule the forum in an appropriate location.

As a Swiss-based organisation the Crans Montana Forum should be concerned that its international conference is to be held in a country where there is ongoing conflict over sovereignty, breaches of international law and ongoing reports of abuses of human rights by the occupying Moroccan administration. It violates fundamental ethical norms and is surely contrary to the commitment of the Crans Montana Forum to building a better World, more humane and impartial and to its forum aim to consider Africa’s major concerns and to foster its hopes and ambitions http://www.cmf.ch/events/upcoming-events.
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An Open Letter from CODESA urges cancellation of the Crans Montana Forum

Laayoune /Western Sahara, 9 February 2015

CODESA (the Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders, of which Aminatou Haidar is president) has written an open letter to the President of the Crans Montana Forum urging the Forum President to cancel its planned meeting on 12th to 14th March 2015 in Dakhla city /Western Sahara to discuss the issue of ” Africa and south–south cooperation.
The decision to hold the meeting in Western Sahara which is known internationally as a disputed territory is an affront to the Saharawis who continue to be subjected to human rights abuses and oppression under the Moroccan regime. (Continue to read CODESA letter)
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Luxembourg pension fund blacklists six firms over Saharan imports

Published Western Sahara Resource Watch: 19.11 – 2014

A Luxembourg government fund has excluded six companies from its portfolios due to “association to illegal exploitation of natural resources (Western Sahara)”.
On 15 November 2014, the Fonds de Compensation commun au régime général de pension (FDC), published the list of 61 companies that it has decided to blacklist. No less than six of those companies have been rejected because they purchase phosphate from Moroccan occupied Western Sahara.
Two Australian companies, Incitec Pivot and Wesfarmers, are complicit in this exploitation of Saharawi resources and are included in the FDC blacklist

January 2015: African Union adopts important decisions on WS

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Twenty-Sixth Ordinary Session 23 – 27 January 2015
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA

DECISION ON THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS
Doc.EX.CL/887(XXVI)

The Executive Council,

10. REITERATES its serious concern at the continued illegal occupation of the territories of Western Sahara which could not be visited by ACHPR in line with Executive Council Decision on the matter, DEMANDS expeditious implementation of the various relevant United Nations and African Union Resolutions to actualize as early as possible the long awaited self-determination of the Saharawi people; in that regard, Council RECOMMENDS that AU organize some of its activities in the liberated territories of Western Sahara as a demonstration of solidarity with the Saharawi people in their legitimate aspirations(1); \

11. RECOMMENDS to the Assembly of the Union to adopt a special declaration condemning the holding of the Crans Montana Forum in Dakhla in the occupied territory of Western Sahara (1), (2);

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Human Rights Watch World Report 2015 – backsliding in human rights

Human Rights Watch have issued their report on 29 January on Morocco and Western Sahara in 2014, saying that backsliding in human rights outpaces reforms and that “There were few tangible improvements in human rights in Morocco and Western Sahara during 2014, either in law or in practice.”

January 2015 New online newsletter about all things Saharawi

Western Sahara Update
January 2015

A new online newsletter about all things Saharawi is now available. It is being distributed to 3500 organisations and individuals and is produced by Zain Atfaak in partnership with Sahrawi young people in the Tindouf camps and is sponsored by the Province of Antwerp (Belgium).

To subscribe to the free online newsletter:
email [email protected]