Western Sahara as Occupied Territories

By : Dr Mohammed Salah Djemal

Researcher and Analyst in International Security Affairs specialised in Africa

“ Western Sahara has never been and will never be Moroccan territory.”

Abstract

Western Sahara is the Africa’s last colony. Occupied by Morocco for more than four decades. Morocco is constantly trying to impede the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination, and to build their own state.  Since the Moroccan colonisation, the Saharawis have been continuously repressed through arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and attacks of the civilian population, racism, torture, persecution and oppression of peaceful demonstrations. The violation of fundamental human rights is an ongoing issue. It is argued that these Moroccan violations may constitute crimes against humanity.

Key-words : Moroccan Occupation, Western Sahara, Human Rights, Violations, MINURSO

Introduction

Twenty five years after an agreement for a United Nations administered referendum in Western Sahara,the Saharawi people – the sole original inhabitants of the territory until 1975 – have yet to be allowed the opportunity to exercise their right to self-determination as a non-selfgoverning people. Western Sahara’s continuing status as a Non-Self-Governing Territory confers an added onus on the Human Rights Council to inquire diligently into the human rights situation in the territory. This is all the more pertinent given the responsibility of the United Nations for Western Sahara under the UN Charter, and as a party to the post-1988 UN/Morocco/Polisario Front cease-fire and referendum agreement. The particular status of Western Sahara must be recalled when assessing how human rights obligations have been allowed to be diminished in the territory during the period of the present review.*

The Moroccan authorities keep a lot of human rights violations stories toward Sahrawis, from getting out by imposing an information blockade through extensive and constant police surveillance of Saharawis in the Occupied Territories. This blockade even extends into the United Nations, whose peacekeeping mission MINURSO is the only UN mission created since the 1970s which has not been given a mandate to monitor and report human rights violations. The deficiency in the mandate is largely a result of France’s position in the Security Council, which affords France, Morocco’s main ally, the power of veto to efficiently block the introduction of human rights monitoring and reporting. For most people, the decolonisation of Africa belongs to the history books. Yet for the Saharawi people, this is not something of the past.

I- Western Sahara: Historical Backround to Undertand the Present

The territory of Western Sahara was allocated to Spain in the so-called Congo Conference in Berlin, which took place from November 1884 to February 1885. Spain began then the colonization of the region, although it did not exercise effective control over the territory until 1934. Spanish forces repressed during decades the Saharawi anti-colonial movement that had emerged and in 1973 the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front) was created.⁽¹⁾  At the same time, the neighbouring countries Morocco and Mauritania made claims to the territory. In November 1975 Morocco’s King Hassan II called 350,000 Moroccans to cross the border in the framework of the so-called “Green March”.Beforehand, Moroccan military forces had entered the north-eastern border area. The invasion of Western Saharan territory from the north marked the beginning of the exodus of thousands of Sahrawi to the desert, fleeing the murders, torture, forced disappearances and bombings carried out by Moroccan military forces.⁽²⁾

Following the “Green March,” Morocco has continued to pursue policies aimed at Moroccanizing the Western Sahara. While Morocco has invested significant amounts in the “development” of the territory for its purposes, exploiting Sahrawi natural resources and favoring settlers in employment. In 1968, 1,600 Sahrawis employed in the phosphate industry, which now employs a mere 200 Sahrawis of a total workforce of 1,900. As such, Sahrawis are pressured to emigrate to the Canary Islands and other places in search of work ⁽³⁾.

In late 1991 the UN brokered a ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario and established the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), charged with monitoring the ceasefire and facilitating a referendum on independence. Little progress has been made towards this end, with successive fra- meworks for a referendum stalling as a result of disagreement over voter registration. The proposal, by James Baker, the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy to Western Sahara (who resigned in 2004), involving a period of autonomy for Western Sahara followed by a referendum on full independence, was accepted by the Polisario but rejected by Morocco.⁽⁴⁾ The Polisario currently administers all the territory to the east and south of the Berm, commonly known as the ‘Free Zone’, from the refugee camps around Tindouf in Algeria. These are home to some 160,000 displaced Saharawi, and effectively constitute a society and state in exile. A lack of infrastructure and resources (principally water), and the risk of renewed conflict, currently prevents the settlement of refugees in the Free Zone.⁽⁵⁾

II- Morocco Violations of the Political, Economic, Civil and Social Rights in Western Sahara

ICESCR: International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

ICCPR: International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Since the Spanish withdrawal from the former Spanish Sahara in 1976, Morocco has exercised varying levels of control over the territory of Western Sahara. Today, Morocco occupies roughly 80% of Western Sahara. As a party to the ICESCR, the Kingdom of Morocco is obligated to implement the treaty’s provisions in any territory where it exercises effective control. Article I expressly contemplates the situation presented in Western Sahara, by providing that “States Parties…including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of selfdetermination . . .”⁽⁶⁾

A- The right of the Western Saharan People to self-determination

The rights of the Sahrawi people to self-determination were reinforced by the 1975 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on Western Sahara. The International Court of Justice expressly rejected Morocco’s and Mauritania’s territorial claims to Western Sahara, and concluded that the principle of self-determination requires “a free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of the Territory.⁽⁷⁾ The clearest statement to this effect was given by the U.N. General Assembly’s Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations: “No territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal.” It follows that where a State has forcibly acquired territory, international law will not recognize the State’s claims of title or sovereignty over that territory.⁽⁸⁾ 

This Committee has repeatedly called on Morocco to recognize the Western Saharan people’s right to self-determination in its concluding observations in 1994, 2000, and 2006, following its review of the Kingdom of Morocco’s periodic reports. As early as 1994, the Committee expressed concern that the right to self-determination in Western Sahara had not been implemented, a failure that contravened plans approved by the United Nations Security Council. In 2006, the Committee stressed that it:⁽⁹⁾

“[A]gain encourages the State Party to make every effort to find a clear and definitive solution to the issue of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara. The Committee calls on the State party to take steps to protect the rights of persons displaced by the conflict in Western Sahara and to ensure their safety”⁽¹⁰⁾

B- The Wall built by Morocco violates  the social and cultural rights of the Sahrawi peaople

The wall has been built by Morocco in the eighties to counter the Sahrawi army, which is 2700 km long. The wall, which is the second longest wall in the world after the Great Wall of China, continues to divide the Sahrawi people and their Territory. The Moroccan regime “cloned” the idea of the wall based on other experiences, which were doomed to failure. both in the refugee camps and the occupied territories and the liberated territories, Sahrawis live traumatised by the persistence of the wall, because in addition to killing and injuring innocent people, it continues to sow panic and terror among the civilian population, thus prolonging the suffering of the Sahrawi people.⁽¹¹⁾

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which  is a global network in some 70 countries dedicated to putting an end to the suffering caused by antipersonnel landmines and cluster bombs, Western Sahara is one  of the ten most mined areas in the world. According to ICBL, since 1975, more than 2,500 people have been killed by landmines in Western Sahara. The United Nations Mine Action (UNMAS) team estimates that 80% of the victims are civilians. “We have conducted a census which, though it only includes survivors, shows that the number of victims of landmines has reached 1,700 people.⁽¹²⁾   The physical barrier represented by the wall also involves other types of less visible separations. «The structure divides a people, the majority of which lives under Moroccan occupation – forty percent of the population of El Aaiún, and twenty percent of that of Dajla is Saharawi.  As a matter of fact there is a strategy planned in order to eliminate the Saharawi identity. For example, there is not a single university in the occupied territories.⁽¹³⁾

C- The Moroccan Exploitation of the Sahrawi People Natural Ressources

The 2002 Legal Opinion of the UN Legal Counsel left clear that the only exploration and exploitation of natural resources that can be conducted in Western Sahara in compliance with international law are the ones conducted with the consent of the Saharawi authorities.⁽¹⁴⁾

Morocco has never sought the consent of the Saharawi people with regard to any resource-related activity it has undertaken in the parts of Western Sahara that it holds under military control. The Saharawis, on the other hand, have continuously spoken out against Morocco’s ongoing exploration and exploitation of their resources. As with protests rooted in the call for self-determination, protests opposing the resource plunder, or demanding social and economic rights or equal benefits from the resource-based activities, are routinely met with violent dispersals by the Moroccan police or security apparatus, harassment of protesters and their family members, arrests and arbitrary detentions, house ransacking, convictions based on false grounds or false testimonies obtained through torture, and incarcerations.⁽¹⁵⁾  In its October 2015 report, the CESCR notes its concern “that the Sahraouis’ right to participate in the use and exploitation of natural resources is still not respected.” It was on this basis that the Committee recommended Morocco to “guarantee respect for the principle of the prior, free and informed consent of the Sahraouis, and thus that they are able to exercise their right to enjoy and utilize fully and freely their natural wealth and resources.” ⁽¹⁶⁾

Morocco has the primary obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the “right to freely dispose of natural resources” as guarded in Article 1 of both the ICESCR and the ICCPR, although, Morocco interferes with the enjoyment of that right, it actively promotes violations of that right by third parties and does not take any appropriate steps to progressively realize full enjoyment of that right. Morocco’s taking of Western Sahara’s natural resources is not directed towards assisting the Saharawi people in the exercise of their right to self-determination, but rather to strengthening and maintaining its untenable claim over the territory. ⁽¹⁷⁾ The problem has three dimensions: (a) the enrichment of Morocco through the sale of the territory’s natural resources; (b) Morocco’s development of Western Sahara’s resources to further acceptance of its illegal presence in the territory; (c) the decreased availability of nonrenewable resources to the Saharawi people when they will eventually realize self-determination.⁽¹⁸⁾

III- Repression of the Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders

In January 2015, the international civil liberties, democracy and human rights NGO Freedom House listed Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara as amongst the “worst of the worst” territories in the world with regards to freedoms, along with Tibet and ten countries. Since April 2014, Saharawis have continued to protest regularly in order to draw attention to human rights concerns, socioeconomic issues and their right to self-determination. They have faced brutal repression when doing so. Indeed, the report identifies alleged incidents of brutality committed by the Moroccan authorities.⁽¹⁹⁾

For years, the Moroccan occupation authorities in Western Sahara have been harassing Sahrawi militants defending their legitimate right to self-determination, and defending the human rights of Sahrawi people in the occupied territories. Among the many cases of Moroccan abuse against Sahrawi militants, we mention the following:

 The “Gdeim Izik group”

The “Gdeim Izik group” refers to a group of Saharawi activists, journalists, human rights defenders, political activists and jurists whom was arrested prior to and following the violent dismantlement of the protest camp Gdeim Izik in November 2010. Currently, 19 of the members of the Gdeim Izik group remain in prison serving 20 years to life. This includes: Sidi Abdallah Abhah, Naâma Asfari, Mohamed Kouna Babait, Cheikh Banga, Mohamed Bani, Mohamed Bourial, Mohamed El Bachir Boutinguiza, Hassan Dah, Mohamed Lamine Haddi, Brahim Ismaïli, El Bachir Khadda, Abdeljalil Laaroussi, Abdallah Lakhfawni, Sid Ahmed Lamjayed, Mohamed Embarek Lefkir, Ahmed Sbaï, Mohamed Thalil, Abdallah Toubali and Houssin Zaoui.⁽²⁰⁾ At the time, 20,000 Sahrawis settled there temporarily, in a mobilization to protest against the discrimination of which the Sahrawis consider themselves victims at the hands of the Moroccan government. Deadly clashes broke out in the camp and then in the town of Laâyoune, between the security forces and the Sahrawi demonstrators, in which thirteen people, eleven agents of the Moroccan security forces and two Sahrawi militants were killed.  Among the hundreds of demonstrators arrested, 25 political activists and Sahrawi rights defenders, considered to be the leaders of the protest camp, are accused of murdering the police officers.⁽²¹⁾

The “Student Group” / “Group of El Wali”

The group of student activists consist of some of the leaders of the Saharawi student organisations in the Moroccan cities of Agadir and Marrakech. They are known as the ‘Student Group’ or “Group of El Wali». As of today, five students are still in jail, sentenced to up to 12 years. Some of the students were released from jail in 2019, after having spent sentences of three years in prison. The story now told, belong to the students released last year.⁽²²⁾  In June 2020, the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara publishes a report regarding the Saharawi imprisoned students in partnership with the National Union of Students in Norway. In the report, four young men explain vividly, with their own words their life stories. They take us back to the time they started engaging in the Saharawi struggle as children and teenagers, until the day that their student campaigns at universities in Morocco led them to detention, torture, forced confessions and year-long sentences under horrible prison conditions.⁽²³⁾

There are also many individual cases of Sahrawi militants being permanently arrested by the Moroccan occupation forces: on March 2021,  Moroccan security forces have maintained a near-constant heavy presence outside the house of an activist for Western Sahara independence for more than three months The surveillance and violations of the right of the activist, Sultana Khaya, to associate freely with others, at her home in Boujdour, Western Sahara, are emblematic of Morocco’s intolerance of calls for Sahrawi self-determination in defiance of Morocco’s claim to the territory. Khaya is locally known for her displays of vehement opposition to Morocco’s control of Western Sahara. She often protests in the street, solo or with others, waving Sahrawi flags and chanting independence slogans in front of Moroccan security force members.⁽²⁴⁾ On 8 May 2021, Hassanna Abba, a member of the executive board of the League for the Protection of Sahrawi Prisonners in Moroccan Prisons (LPPS) was assaulted by Moroccan police officers. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT), ACAT-France, and International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) denounce this attack and call upon the Moroccan authorities to carry out an investigation and immediately cease all acts of harassment against Mr Abba and all Sahrawi human rights defenders.⁽²⁵⁾

On 26 May 2021, the Eurodeputy Pernando Barrena Arza (The Left), adressed a question to the European parliament under the subject of escalation of repression and violation of human rights in Western Sahara :

“Since Morocco’s ceasefire ended with an attack on Sahrawi civilians, the Alawi Kingdom has increased its pressure on the Sahrawi population, constantly harassing activists protesting the occupation.

This is the case of Sultana Khaya, her sister and her mother, who are under house arrest and are not allowed visitors. Moreover, Sultana Khaya has stated that Moroccan security forces raided and destroyed her home and sexually assaulted her and her sister.

Mina Baali, an ISACOM activist, has been under house arrest since 7 May and has been violently assaulted by Moroccan military police.

In view of the above:

1. Has the VP/HR conveyed his concerns to the Moroccan Government about the degradation of human rights in Western Sahara and, in particular, the sexual assaults against Sahrawi activists?
2. Does the VP/HR believe that this situation underscores the need for MINURSO to monitor the protection of human rights in Western Sahara?
3. Does the VP/HR believe that the continued violation of human rights by Moroccan occupying forces in Western Sahara is a sufficient basis for triggering the human rights protection clause of the EU-Morocco trade agreement?” ⁽²⁶⁾

 

IV- Torture and Discrimination by Morocco Occupation Authorities in Western Sahara

The Moroccan occupation is carrying out a terrible escalation of systematic racist acts, and torture, beside a serious violations of human rights, and international humanitarian law against civilians, human rights activists , and media professionals in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

Many NGOs have voiced concerns about torture practices committed against Saharawis by Moroccan officials. Amnesty International reports about torture and illtreatment of Saharawis when these were arrested for having led demonstrations against Moroccan dominion of the Saharan territory. The torture is aimed at intimidating the arrested, punishing them for their opinions about the self-determination, or even to force them to sign confessions.⁽²⁷⁾  The famous human rights defender Aminatou Haidar published a testimony of torture in  “International law and the question of Western Sahara”, and was arrested on the 17th of June 2005 and tortured in public. Aminatou Haidar got three costal fractures and two serious wounds to the skull and had to get eleven stitches.⁽²⁸⁾

Walid El Batal, a pro self-determination Sahrawi activist, remained in prison after an appeals court in El-Ayoun, Western Sahara’s largest city, sentenced him in October 2019 to two years for “rebellion” and insulting police officers. On February 25, authorities told Human Rights Watch that they opened an investigation following the publication on YouTube, nine months earlier, of a video showing police agents severely beating El Batal and one other person upon arrest.⁽²⁹⁾ The content of that investigation was not made public at time of writing, even though authorities told Human Rights Watch that tribunals in Smara and El-Ayun have prosecuted or investigated six police agents for illegal use of violence, in relation to El Batal’s arrest. Human Rights Watch was not able to verify that information independently.⁽³⁰⁾

On 26 May 2021, in a letter sent to its representation to the United Nations (UN) and international organizations in Geneva (Switzerland), Frente POLISARIO has denounced “the deployment of occupation forces since 13 November in El Guerguerat and its assault against Sahrawi civilians that demonstrate peacefully against Morocco’s violations of human rights and the illegal exploitation of natural resources in occupied territories,” flouting the ceasefire agreement.⁽³¹⁾

In an urgent letter adressed to Amnesty International on 11 June 2021, on behalf of family and lawyer of the Sahrawi detained activist Mohamed Lamine Haddi, explaing the dangerous situation of torture and health diffuclties in which the Sahrawi activist is suffering⁽³²⁾ ;

“Mohamed Lamine Haddi’s lawyer and family have not heard from him since 9 April, when he called to inform them that the prison director of Tiflet II had threatened to put him in a small, dungeon-like cell, if his family continued to publicise his case. According to his lawyer, the prison authorities previously detained Mohamed Lamine Haddi in such a cell in 2018 as punishment. His lawyer described the cell as a small room of 2m² with no window, tap nor toilet. It is known as the “punishment cell” or “coffin” because it is the same size. Since 9 April, his family called the King’s prosecutor and the prison director several times, with no response. Mohamed Lamine Haddi’s lawyer and family both called the prison separately on 1 June and the phone was hung-up on them at the mention of Mohamed Lamine Haddi’s name.⁽³³⁾

V- Human Rights in Western Sahara: The United Nations Black Reports Against Morocco

On 1st July 2021, a United Nations human rights body criticised Morocco for alleged human rights abuses in Western Sahara. The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders said that those who document human rights in Morocco and the disputed North African territory are subject to state repression: ⁽³⁴⁾

“Not only do human rights defenders working on issues related to human rights in Morocco and Western Sahara continue to be wrongfully criminalised for their legitimate activities, they receive disproportionately long prison sentences,”. “And whilst imprisoned, they are subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and torture.” ⁽³⁵⁾

The UN Independant expert Lawyor said she had received reports that activists working on human rights issues in Western Sahara had been subjected to “intimidation, harassment, death threats, criminalization, physical and sexual assault, threats of rape and         surveillance “. She added that if this information is confirmed “it constitutes violations of international human rights law and standards and goes against the commitment of the Moroccan government to the United Nations system in his outfit”.⁽³⁶⁾

In a joint communication addressed to the Moroccan government, four human rights Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council express serious concerns about a multitude of abuses committed against eight prominent Sahrawi human rights defenders and describe a hostile environment toward human rights work in the occupied Western Sahara.⁽³⁷⁾  In a strong rebuke to the Moroccan government, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, the Special Rapporteur on torture and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a joint communication addressed to the Kingdom of Morocco expressing serious concerns about human rights violations against the indigenous Sahrawi people in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, focusing on the cases of eight victims. The communication (in French only) was made public in March 2021.⁽³⁸⁾

Concluding Remarks and Recommendations

Over the past 40 years of regional conflict, Moroccan authorities have repeatedly committed serious human rights abuses and violations ;

– Restrictions imposed by moroccan authorities on the entry of independent human rights organizations and journalists remain in place in Western Sahara, limiting monitoring of human rights violations by the Moroccan occupation and entrenching impunity for Moroccan security forces.

– Since April 2014, the Moroccan occupation has arrested and deported more than 280 people among lawyers, human rights defenders, journalists and academics of 20 different nationalities who intended to reach the occupied territories, and has prevented the High Commissioner for Human Rights from reaching the area since June 2015. Morocco continues to strongly and without convincing reasons reject the existence of a human rights component of the United NationsReferendum Mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO).⁽³⁹⁾

– Most of the political arrests against Sahrawi political detainees have been regarded as kidnappings, as various Moroccan security agencies arbitrarily arrest, interrogate, provoke and harass Sahrawi civilians by deciding to release or arrest them without resorting to the well-known procedures adopted.

– The Moroccan occupation continues to tighten the military, police and media blockade by in western Sahara cities with various police agents, and sending special repressive teams with the aim of suppressing and intimidating Sahrawi citizens,  and confiscating their right to expression and peaceful demonstration.

Through all of the above about Morocco’s violation of human rights in occupied Western Sahara, it is advisable to make the following recommendations :

• The international community, given all reports issued by the United Nations, Security Council resolutions on the issue of Western Saharaة and various international NGOs, demands the need to ensure the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.
• The international community bears full responsibility for the issue of Western Sahara by finding an urgent and final solution to the issue of Western Sahara, a solution that guarantees the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
• It is also necessary to speed up the creation of a UN mechanism to monitor and report on the human rights situation in Western Sahara, or to expand the powers of the MINURSO in Western Sahara to include human rights monitoring.
• Lifting the military, police, media and human rights blockades on the occupied cities of Western Sahara, and making it an open territory for foreign delegations and observers and all international human rights and humanitarian organizations. All Sahrawi political prisoners must also be released from various Moroccan prisons.

 

Endnotes:

* Report submitted by Western Sahara Resource Watch, May 2017. Available at: https://www.upr-info.org/sites/default/files/document/morocco/session_27_-_may_2017/js10_upr27_mar_e_main.pdf

1- Irantzu Mendia Azkue, “The Forgotten Conflict in Western Sahara and its Refugees” ,eurotopics. Available at:  https://www.bpb.de/gesellschaft/migration/laenderprofile/329234/western-sahara

2- Ibid.

3- http://www.hlrn.org/english/WS%20history.pdf

4- Nick Brooks, “Cultural Heritage and Conflict: The Threatened Archaeology of Western Sahara”, The Journal of African Studies. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233712897_Cultural_Heritage_and_Conflict_The_Threatened_Archaeology_of_Western_Sahara_Introduction_Recent_Historical_Background

5- Ibid.

6- Report on the Kingdom of Morocco’s Violations of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights in the Western Sahara. Available at : https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CESCR/Shared%20Documents/MAR/INT_CESCR_CSS_MAR_21582_E.pdf

7- Ibid.

8- Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Morocco, 30 May 1994, E/C.12/1994/5. Concludings.

9- Committee concludings 2006.

10- Ibid

11- The Wall is the Moroccan Version of Apartheid, International Compaign Against the Wall of the Moroccan Occupation in Western Sahara. Available at: http://removethewall.org/the-wall-is-the-moroccan-version-of-apartheid/

12- Eugenio G. Delgado, Western Sahara: The Wall that Nobody Talks about, South World. Available at: https://www.southworld.net/western-sahara-the-wall-that-nobody-talks-about/

13- Ibid.

14- Letter dated 29 January 2002 from the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, the Legal Counsel, addressed to the President of the Security Council. S/2002/161.

15- “P for Plunder” WSRW’s annual phosphate rock investigative report, at: www.wsrw.org For reports about socio-economic protests in Western Sahara, see www.sahararesources.org

16- UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding Observations on the fourth periodic report of Morocco, 22 October 2015, E/C.12/MAR/CO/4, paragraph 5-6.

17- Report submitted by Western Sahara Resource Watch and the Association for the Monitoring of Resources and the Protection of the Environment in Western Sahara In view of Morocco’s third cycle Universal Periodic Review 27th session of the Human Rights Council May 2017. Available at : https://www.upr-info.org/sites/default/files/document/morocco/session_27_-_may_2017/js10_upr27_mar_e_main.pdf

18- Ibid.

19- Morocco Human Rights Violations in Western Sahara and the Silence of the International Comunity, Norwegian Students and Academics International Assistance Fund. Available at : https://saih.no/assets/docs/Acting-With-Impunity-Western-Sahara-report.pdf

 

20- The Occupied Territories of Western Sahara and Long Term Detention of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders, The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara/ American Association of Jurists/ The League for the Protection of Saharawi political prisoners held within Moroccan jails. Response on the issue of long term detention of human rights defenders March 2021. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Defenders/longterm-detention-defenders/Submissions/CSOs/36_nscws-aaj-lpspp-cso-en-morocco-y.pdf

21- Prisoniers de Gdeim Izik: Déjà 10 ans de détention arbitraire, ACAT France, 5/11/2020. Available at: https://www.acatfrance.fr/communique-de-presse/prisonniers-de-gdeim-izik–deja-10-ans-de-detention-arbitraire-

22- New report tells the stories of imprisoned Saharawi students in Moroccan jails, The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara. June 2020. Available at: https://vest-sahara.no/en/news/new-report-tells-the-stories-of-imprisoned-saharawi-students-in-moroccan-jails

23- Ibid

24- Western Sahara: Harassment of Independence Activist : Intensive Surveillance, Restriction of Visitors for More Than 3 Months, Human Rights Watch. 5 March 2021. Available at : https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/05/western-sahara-harassment-independence-activist

25- Morocco/Western Sahara: Sahrawi human rights defender Hassanna Abba attacked by police, International Federation for Human Rights. 04 June 2021. Available at: https://www.fidh.org/en/region/north-africa-middle-east/morocco/morocco-western-sahara-sahrawi-human-rights-defender-hassanna-abba

26- Parliamentary questions, European Parliament, E-002783/2021. Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2021-002783_EN.html

27- Human Rights Council, summary prepared by the Ofce of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Universal Periodic Review concerning Morocco, A/HRC/WG.6/1/MAR/3, 11 March 2008,  paragraph. 42

28- Aminatou Haidar, A Testimony of Human Rights Violations against Saharawis, International law and the question of Western Sahara, International Platform of Jurists for East Timor (IPJET), Leiden, 2007, p. 348.

29- Morocco/Western Sahara 2020 Events, Human Rights Report 2021. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/morocco/western-sahara

30- Ibid.

31- Frente POLISARIO condemns spate of Morocco’s racist acts in occupied Western Sahara, Sahara Press Service, 26 May 2021. Available at: https://www.spsrasd.info/news/en/articles/2021/05/26/33393.html

32- SAHRAWI ACTIVIST DETAINED INCOMMUNICADO, Amnesty International, Second UA: 37/21 Index: MDE 29/4275/2021 Morocco/Western Sahara, 11 June 2021. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE2942752021ENGLISH.pdf

33- Ibid.

34- UN reports severe human rights abuses in western sahara, Al-Monitor, 2 July 2021. Available at: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/07/un-reports-severe-human-rights-abuses-western-sahara

35- Ibid.

36- UN expert calls on Morocco to stop targeting militants in Western Sahara, The Bharat Express News, 2 July 2021. Available at: https://www.thebharatexpressnews.com/un-expert-calls-on-morocco-to-stop-targeting-militants-in-western-sahara/

37- UNSRs Appeal for Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders, Geneva Support Group for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in Western Sahara, Housing and Land Rights Network, 28 April 2021. Available at: http://www.hic-mena.org/activitydetails.php?id=p2lkZA==#.YOndwPkzaM9

38- Ibid.

39- Radio Algérie, 06/07/2021. Available at: https://www.radioalgerie.dz/news/ar/article/20210706/214309.html