Author Archives: appleton

Western Sahara: forgotten first source of the Arab Spring

Carne Ross
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 April 2012

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.

Miriam Clegg paid £400 an hour by mining giant accused of trampling on rights of Saharan tribesmen

Mailonline
By Simon Walters And Glen Owen
14 April 2012

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 >>

Melbourne, 13 April – Australians demand human rights for Western Sahara

The Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) organised on Friday 13 April 2012 in front of the French Consulate in Melbourne a protest under the slogan: human rights for Western Sahara – the time is now!
Some of the protesters were dressed as the three monkeys which embody the proverbial principle to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. They represent the way in which the United Nations has turned a blind eye to human rights abuses in occupied Western Sahara, most notably, France

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Javier Bardem talks about his latest film projects

The National – Arts and Culture

Alex Ritman, Apr 8, 2012

Javier Bardem’s documentary about the Western Sahara conflict, Sons of the Clouds, premiered at the Berlinale in February.

This year’s festival, a notoriously politicised event at the best of times, was predictably heavy with features relating to the Arab Spring. But with Sons of the Clouds, which was produced by and stars Bardem, came a film highlighting an Arab conflict that has remained out of the limelight.

As claimed by Noam Chomsky in the documentary’s opening scenes, the Arab Spring did not, as widely held, begin with the self-immolation of Mohammed….(cont…)

Full report >>

‘If a tree falls in a forest’ …The Case of Western Sahara

Human Rights Documenter
Posted 25 March 2012

By Carmela Baranowska, Journalist and Filmmaker

Read post >>

The King and I: freedom and incarceration in Morocco

The Hindu, Opinion, April 2, 2012
Aman Sethi
The story of El Haked, the Moroccan rapper who defied his monarch.

“The Spiteful One sits on a floor mattress eating cheese and scrambled eggs straight from a frying pan on a table on the first floor of an abandoned slaughterhouse on the outskirts of Casablanca….cont.
Full report >>

AWSA writes to Security Council about monitoring of human rights abuses in occupied WS

26 March 2012. AWSA President Lyn Allison on behalf of AWSA has written to the Secretary General of the United Nations, about monitoring of human rights in occupied WS.

The letter emphasises the fact that MINURSO – the UN mission in Western Sahara – is the only UN peacekeeping mission established since 1978 without a mandate to monitor human rights. This means that Morocco has been able, with impunity, to occupy Western Sahara and subject the Saharawis to arbitrary arrest, disappearances, false imprisonment, unfair trials, torture and the death penalty

26 March 2012 AWSA letter to Security Council >>

WS Crowdmap : Tracking and Monitoring Human Rights Violations in WS

A system has been set up to report human rights abuses in the occupied territory of Western Sahara.

Since the UN is failing to do this, it is important to publicise what has been recorded by a consortium of human rights organisations around the world, and within the Occupied Territory.

WESTERN SAHARA CROWDMAP >>

Western Sahara: Women’s Rights Flourish in Difficult Times

Mar 08, 2012
By Fernande van Tets, Giulia Zuzic and Sarah Clark

Part 4 in a 4 part series on Women’s Rights.

In honor of International Women’s Day, The InterDependent takes a look at the progress made in gender equality.

Read Part 4 – Western Sahara; women’s rights >>

Javier Bardem – From movie villain to real-life hero

The Independent, Friday 16 March 2012
by Kaleem Aftab

The 43-year-old actor was recently in attendance at the Berlin Film Festival as producer and presenter of Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony, a documentary about the plight of the Sahrawi people in the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara.