Category Archives: Human Rights

Opportunity for ACTION – Petition to free Gdeim Izik group of Saharawi prisoners

Forthcoming trial of 22 Gdeim Izik prisoners

Add your signature to Avaaz petition >>

The trial has been set for 24 October in Rabat of the Saharawis arrested in connection with the Gdeim Izik protest camp. These are the people believed by the Moroccan authorities to be the ring leaders of the peaceful month-long protest in which Saharawis left the towns of occupied Western Sahara and camped in the desert about 12km from the occupied capital El Aaiun.

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Crowd funding campaign for documentary on Saharawi women’s stories

We can contribute to the making of this important documentary about the experience of violence and oppression amongst Saharawi women

‘JUST TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I’M ALIVE’ is a multimedia 25 minutes documentary that for the first time collects Saharawi women’s stories and voices with a feminine sensibility, combining video footage clips, photographs, music and valuable stock material.

The documentary makers, journalist Emanuela Zuccalà  and award winning Italian photographer Simona Ghizzoni write “It’s a new chapter of our personal research, that since longtime pushes the both of us to report – through photography, video and writing – the different forms of violence against women in several places of the world…..” (continued)

GO TO CROWD FUNDING WEBSITE  >>

At this page you can view footage and contribute to the campaign.

Morocco must do more to eradicate torture, says UN rights expert

UN News Centre,  24 September 2012
While a culture of human rights is emerging in Morocco, the authorities must do more to eradicate torture and ill-treatment, says an independent United Nations human rights expert.

“The situation on the ground regarding the practice of torture has generally improved from the past decades when there were widespread disappearances, secret detention and torture,” said Juan E. Méndez, the Special Rapporteur on torture….(continued)
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RFK Center observes grave human rights violations in Western Sahara

(Washington–Sept. 3, 2012)
Following a human rights delegation to Western Sahara, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center) is issuing a statement with preliminary observations evaluating the human rights situation in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara and the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria.

Report about delegation’s visit >>

Read delegation’s Statement of preliminary observations >>

A Brush with Morocco’s Secret Police in Laayoune, Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara

(2012-08-28) The following op-ed by Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, appeared yesterday in the Huffington Post. Ms. Kennedy is currently leading a human rights delegation in Western Sahara.

She wrote this article while the delegation was in Laayoune, meeting with members of civil society including RFK Human Rights Award Laureate Aminatou Haidar.

Read Kerry Kennedy’s report >>

Photos >>

Morocco denies shameful beating of woman human rights defender

Morocco denies shameful beating of woman human rights defender.
Frontline Defenders: Mary Lawlor’s blog

“I got news that police were breaking up and beating demonstrators. News came that a woman human rights defender had been badly injured and was asked would I like to see her. I went to the hospital with Eric Sottas, where I took this photo, as she lay waiting to be treated. Her name is Soukainajed Ahlou and she is President of the Forum for Sahrawi women. ….(cont.)

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“No other choice” than self-determination for Western Sahara

Peter Kenworthy, NTA Newstime Africa, 
“There is no other choice but self-determination,” says a lady interviewed in a new documentary about Western Sahara made by 31-year-old English independent film-maker and journalist, Dominic Brown. She is the wife of one of the many activists belonging to Western Sahara’s indigenous population, the Saharawis, who have been imprisoned and tortured for campaigning for independence for Africa’s last colony….(cont.)

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Kerry Kennedy leads high level delegation to assess human rights situation

21 August : Press release

On Thursday 23 August Kerry Kennedy of the Robert F Kennedy Center and Mary Lawlor, Founder and Executive Director, Front Line Defenders will take part in a high level delegation to Western Sahara to assess the human rights situation on the ground in both Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria.

Read article and press release >>

Who speaks For Fetim Salam?

Overland : Online Blog, 24 July 2012

Carmela Baranowska writes about Robbed of Truth: The Western Sahara Conflict and the Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking (directed and produced by Carlos González)

Fetim Salam is a refugee who lives in a remote and inhospitable part of North Africa. She is one of an estimated twelve million refugees worldwide. However, her life is neither obscure nor forgotten. Fetim Salam is represented in two recent documentaries, Stolen (directed by Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw; produced by Violeta Ayala, Dan Fallshaw and Tom Zubrycki) and Robbed of Truth: The Western Sahara Conflict and the Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking (directed and produced by Carlos González)

Continue reading ‘Who speaks for Fetim Salam?’ >>