Category Archives: Human Rights

Decades-old dispute separates Western Sahara families

Daily Mail Australia, 3 April 2016

Ergueibi Abdelahi was just nine months old when his aunt scooped him up and fled fighting in Western Sahara after Morocco sent troops into the former Spanish colony, leaving his parents and brother behind. Until he was 10, he thought his aunt was his mother.
“She (my mother) was at the market on the day we ran,” Abdelahi says of their escape in 1978 across the border into Algeria.

Daily Mail Australia report >>

40 Years in, Western Sahara can count on Cuba & Latin America

Telesur Analysis, 26 February 2016

Morocco’s military occupation of Western Sahara has become “morally indefensible,” a leading Sahrawi rights activist told teleSUR Saturday. The Moroccan occupation is sapping the Western Saharan territory of its natural resources while subjecting the Indigenous population, the Sahrawi to widespread human rights abuses, according to campaigner Cate Lewis. (…cont.)

Telesur Analysis report >>

UN chief plans later visit to Western Sahara

Daily Mail Australia online, 1 February 2016

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will travel to Western Sahara later this year where the United Nations is seeking to end a 40-year conflict with Morocco, his spokesman said Monday.
Ban, who steps down at the end of the year, had hoped to travel to the main city of Laayoune in Western Sahara and visit Rabat during his north Africa tour later this week, but no date was agreed with Morocco.

Daily Mail article >>

Time for a Referendum in Western Sahara, says Nick Scott from Independent Diplomat

Nick Scott, 10 February 2016
The World Post, a partnership of The Huffington Post and the Berggruen Institute,

In this article Nick Scott, External Relations Officer at Independent Diplomat, vehemently critiques the argument put forward recently by Marc Ginsberg, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco that Americans ought to “applaud” Morocco because “it is a challenge identifying a strong dependable, and extraordinarily supportive Arab ally in the chaos [of the region].”

Read Nick Scott’s article >>

5 November 2015 – The Guardian UK publishes letter initiated by Western Sahara Campaign UK

The letter initiated by the Western Sahara Campaign UK has been published in the Guardian online and in print on 5 November 2015 and has been signed by a number of support groups for Western Sahara from around the world.

The Guardian letter >>

HRW issues statement on Morocco’s demand for HRW to cease activities in their country

Human Rights Watch, October 2, 2015
Statement Regarding Human Rights Watch Activities in Morocco
(Tunis) – Human Rights Watch issued the following statement on October 2, 2015, in response to a demand from the Moroccan government to suspend Human Rights Watch activities in the country:

“Human Rights Watch is disappointed with the demand from the Morocco government’s spokesman in a letter dated September 23, 2015, that Human Rights Watch suspend its activities in the country, and with the letter’s unspecified accusations of bias. (cont.)

HRW Statement >>

South African President calls on the UN to determine a date for the referendum

South African President Mr Jacob Zuma

Sahara Press Service, Pretoria (South Africa), Sept 15, 2015 (SPS)
The South African President, Mr. Jacob Zuma called today on the United Nations to set a date for a referendum of the Saharawi people to decide their fate, in his speech on International Relations Peace and Security to Heads of Missions and Media in Pretoria.(…cont.)

Article >>

Monarchy’s red lines gag Morocco’s independent media

Reporters Without Borders, 17 September 2015

Reporters Without Borders is very worried about the current state of freedom of information in the Kingdom of Morocco, where French President François Hollande is due to begin a two-day visit on Saturday.
Moroccan journalists who violate the taboos on criticizing Islam, the monarchy or the country’s claim to Western Sahara are liable to receive heavy fines or long jail terms.

Article

Banned Moroccan journalist finally able to work again

After a 10-year ban and a hunger strike, one Moroccan journalist is getting back to work
By Sam Kimball
September 11, 2015

“In the courtyard of his 19th century Andalusian house among the winding alleyways of the city of Tetouan, in Morocco’s verdant Rif Mountains, journalist Ali Lmrabet, 55, types slowly on his laptop, which sits atop a pile of notebooks on a wooden table. (…cont.)

Article

Senator Claire Moore addresses the Senate on Human Rights and Morocco

Tuesday, 8 September 2015

In her speech to the Senate Senator Claire Moore, Labor Senator for Queensland, spoke of the injustice of Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara for over 40 years, the oppression and human rights abuses endured by the Saharawi, the plight of those in exile in the desert of Algeria and the failure of the United Nations to require Morocco to honour its ceasefire agreement to allow a UN referendum in Western Sahara.
Senator Moore acknowledged the presence in the gallery of a delegation from the Australia Western Sahara Association who have been working tirelessly to ensure that this message is not lost in our community.

Hansard Record 8 September 2015

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