The Saharawi Commission Against Moroccan Occupation (ISACOM)
Following the founding of the Saharawi Commission Against Moroccan Occupation in September this year, we write to Aminatou Haidar, ISACOM President.
Dear Aminatou,
I am writing to you to express the solidarity of the Western Sahara Campaign (UK) with you and other members of the executive of “The Saharawi Commission against Moroccan Occupation” (ISACOM).
It has been our privilege to host your visits to the UK – most recently to have facilitated your bearing witness to the human rights atrocities perpetrated under the illegal Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara in the House of Commons in London in 2019.
We stand beside you in your principled stand for international human rights of the Saharawi people to be respected and specifically for their inalienable right for self-determination. We welcome the founding of ISACOM as a legitimate expression of those rights.
We note that members of ISACOM’s executive are being targeted by the illegal Moroccan forces of occupation and have heard your call for “the international community to intervene to prevent further deterioration of the human rights situation in Western Sahara, and warns against the results of this escalation campaign against Saharawi activists opposing the Moroccan occupation.”
The UK government, particularly as a member of the UN Security Council, has responsibility under international law to stop the unacceptable victimisation of members of ISACOM and their enforced house arrest. We call on them to take action to protect the human right to self-expression of the Saharawi people and to protect their right to support the implementation of international law without fear of victimisation, torture and imprisonment.
You know we have long called for the mandate of The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include the monitoring of human rights. The treatment of members of ISACOM once again illustrates the impact of the failure of MINURSO to monitor human rights abuse.
The renewal of the mandate of MINURSO, currently being considered by the UN Security Council, presents another opportunity for the international community to fulfil its legal obligations to the Saharawi people under international law – not just to protect their human rights under the Moroccan illegal occupation of Western Sahara, but also to set out how it will hold a free and fair referendum that provides for the self-determination of the Saharawi people. It is after all the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara.
We promise that we will continue to stand alongside you in solidarity with you and members of ISACOM in their struggle and would ask you to communicate our support to them.
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.
Follow the news about EU's illegal fisheries in Western Sahara
