Category Archives: Human Rights

Western Sahara: The Forgotten Conflict at Risk of Re-escalation

Dr Claire Spencer, Newsweek online, 14 May 2016

The Western Sahara conflict has eluded resolution for so long that the principles underlying United Nations-led efforts to seek an enduring outcome have become muddied almost to the point of cancelling each other out. Forty-one years since its inception, diplomatic language rather than arms has become the medium for the continuation of the dispute. The annual highlight is the renewal of the UN Security Council’s peacekeeping and monitoring mission …(cont.)
Newsweek article

Western Sahara’s moment in the sun: How the UN chief waded into a forgotten conflict with no end in sight

Annie Slemrod, Middle East Editor, IRIN
JERUSALEM, 14 April 2016

“Of all of the world’s forgotten conflicts…that of Western Sahara, with its refugees tucked away in a remote desert, ranks as one of the most consigned to oblivion. But last month, the world’s top diplomat, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, brought the issue to temporary attention with a rather undiplomatic move. After visiting part of the disputed territory, which is claimed by both Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, he called Morocco’s presence there an “occupation.”…(cont.)

IRIN article >>

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

western_sahara_55.jpg_916636689Morocco’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 >>

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

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