wsahara.org.uk , May 2013
SAHARA ANALYSIS   No: 77

Despite a well supported international campaign the UN Security Council voted not to monitor human rights violations on April 25th . The Moroccan Government will continue to wage its campaign of systematic violations of the rights of the Saharawi – MINURSO will remain a silent on-looker.

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16 May 2013

Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme
“Reports that the Moroccan authorities subjected these six detainees – including a child – to torture and other ill-treatment to extract ‘confessions’ are deeply disturbing. The allegations must be thoroughly investigated, with those responsible brought to justice.”

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U.S. State Department.Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 : Western Sahara

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

“Morocco claims the Western Sahara territory and administers Moroccan law through Moroccan institutions in the estimated 85 percent of the territory it controls. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario), an organization that has sought independence for the former Spanish territory since 1973, disputes Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over the territory.(…cont.)

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NOWHERE TO TURN: THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FAILURE TO MONITOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN WESTERN SAHARA AND TINDOUF REFUGEE CAMPS

Press Release:  US leads movement to add human rights monitoring to the region’s 20-year-old UN peace-keeping mission

(Washington, DC – April 18, 2013) The RFK Center announced the release of a new report detailing grave human rights violations—including summary execution, enforced disappearance, torture, and arbitrary arrest—against the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara. On the eve of the report’s release, and just one week after the United States took historic action in drafting a human rights monitoring mandate for the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, RFK Human Rights Award Laureate Aminatou Haidar, known as the “Sahrawi Gandhi,” was placed under increased police surveillance.

Read RFK Center Release

Read the full Report “NOWHERE TO TURN”

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS | Thu Apr 18, 2013 1:53pm BST

(Reuters) – France, Morocco’s traditional protector on the U.N. Security Council, is unlikely to use its veto to block a U.S. proposal to have U.N. peacekeepers monitor human rights in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, envoys said.

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By Louis Charbonneau and Aziz El Yaakoubi

UNITED NATIONS/RABAT | Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:29pm EDT

(Reuters) – The United States has proposed that the U.N. peace-keeping mission in the disputed territory of Western Sahara help monitor human rights there, U.N. diplomats said on Tuesday, an idea that has prompted an expression of regret from Morocco.

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Human Rights Watch, April 17, 2013

To: All Members of the UN Security Council
Re: MINURSO Renewal

Dear Ambassador,

Human Rights Watch urges the Security Council, when it votes on renewing the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) this month, to extend the mandate to incorporate human rights monitoring in Western Sahara and in the Polisario Front-run refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria. (…cont.)

Letter to Members of the Security Council >>

Security Council Should Allow Monitoring for Violations
Philippe Bolopion, UN director, Human Rights Watch
April 17, 2013
(New York) – United Nations Security Council members should task the United Nations with monitoring human rights violations in Western Sahara and in the refugee camps around Tindouf, in Algeria, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to all 15 Security Council member countries.

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