Big push coming on human rights monitoring - watch this space
The UN Security Council’s willingness to abrogate its responsibility and ‘sacred trust’ especially with the failure to address the need for impartial independent international human rights monitoring has been a signal to Morocco that it can continue without seriously engaging in the referendum process.
With your help last year’s campaign helped to pressure the UNSC to act and for the first time human rights were specifically mentioned in the resolution.
With resolutions 1979 (2011) and 2044 (2012) the Security Council (UNSC) put in place measures on human rights. These have been ineffective as the articles on the following pages show.
The UNSC made a national body of the occupying power, the Moroccan National Human Rights Council, responsible for monitoring human rights abuses; and it does not report to the UNSC.
That there have only been two visits of Special Rapporteurs to Western Sahara for a total of two days since Resolution 1979 was passed eighteen months ago demonstrates that this is not an efffective mechanism. Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur on torture, reported of his visit to El Aaiun that he was “overwhelmed” with the vast number of requests to meet and the hundreds of cases received prior and during his visit.
In mid January WSC together with an international network will launch a campaign calling for the UNSC to introduce more robust human rights monitoring mechanisms when the MINURSO mandate is renewed in April.
With your help last year’s campaign helped to pressure the UNSC to act and for the first time human rights were specifically mentioned in the resolution.
Now we need to increase the pressure.
Details of the campaign will be sent out via e-mail and will be on the WSC website.
WESTERN SAHARA CAMPAIGN UK
The Western Sahara Campaign works in solidarity with the Saharawi people to generate political support in order to advance their right to self-determination and to promote their human rights.
Our role is to lobby the UK Government and the EU. You can help us to ensure the UK does not ignore the voice of the Saharawi people.
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