Category Archives: Human Rights

Bitter dispute over Stolen documentary – ABC 7.30 report

ABC 7.30 Report
Monday, June 15, 2009 8:35 AEST

A bitter dispute has erupted over the accuracy of a taxpayer-funded feature documentary screened at the Sydney Film Festival. The film, called ‘Stolen’, features the story of Fetim Sellami and her family, who live in a refugee camp in the Algerian Sahara Desert. Fetim Sellami has been flown to Sydney by the independence movement that runs the camp, to enable her to denounce her depiction in the documentary as a slave, and the allegation that such slavery is widespread in the camps.

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Friday15 May – Leichhardt Town Hall. Africa’s last colony; Western Sahara in Film

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Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) invites you to a film evening at Leichhardt Town Hall on Friday 15 May 2009.

Details:
Friday 15 May 2009
Leichhardt Town Hall, 7-15 Wetherill Street Leichhardt
6.30 p.m. drinks and finger food
7.30 p.m. films
$20 and $10 concession

Download flyer with details of the films >>>

Funds raised at the event will be donated to the Saharawi Journalists’ and Writers’ Union (UPES) for the work of journalists and writers in providing information about Western Sahara to a world wide audience.

Human rights in Western Sahara – one step closer

Independent Diplomat Communiqué 5 May 2009
Human rights in Western Sahara – one step closer
In an important development last week, the UN Security Council – in Resolution 1871 – for the first time recognized “the human dimension” of the long-standing dispute over Western Sahara between Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO, the elected leadership of the indigenous population of Western Sahara.
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Front Line Defenders launch a letter-campaign

Front Line Defenders launched a letter-campaign requesting the immediate release of human rights activist Yahya Mohamed el Hafed Aaza.

More info here >>

Saharawi supporters are invited to send a letter to the king of Morocco about the unwarranted torture and detention of this human rights defender. Sample letter >>
Send letter to:

S.M. Roi Mohammed VI,
Bureau du Roi,
Palais Royal,
Rabat – Morocco

Letter from Australian Parliamentary Friendship Group for Western Sahara to the President of the UN Security Council

On 21 April 2009 the Australian Parliamentary Friendship Group for Western Sahara sent the following  letter  to H. E. Ambassador Claude Heller, President of the United Nations Security Council.

Mr President,
We are writing on behalf of the Parliamentary Friends of Western Sahara Group in the Australian Federal Parliament, concerning the question of
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AWSA celebrates the Saharawi national day 2009 in Melbourne

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Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) celebrates the Saharawi national day 2009 in Melbourne
AWSA organised on Sunday 1 March in Alphington park in Melbourne a public event to mark the 33rd anniversary of the proclamation of the Saharawi Republic.
Georgia Vlassopoulos, chair of AWSA (Victoria) welcomed all those who attended the event to celebrate the Saharawi National Day (….continued)

Watch Youtube footage of Saharawi national day events >>
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Sahrawi teenager raped by police officers

Last Sunday night, on the way out of her family’s house in al Quds street in El Aaiun, the 16 year old pupil was stopped by the police.  The 16-year-old was undressed and raped during interrogation.
According to her own testimony to the Sahrawi human rights organizations ASVDH and ODS, she was handcuffed and her face was covered with a dirty cloth. She was then taken into a police car, where she was beaten. The police took her to an unknown location.

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