Denunciamos las vulneraciones de derechos humanos en el Sáhara Occidental en el marco de 58º Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU en Ginebra

We Denounce Human Rights Violations in Western Sahara at the 58th UN Human Rights Council in Geneva

For the ninth consecutive year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has been denied access to Western Sahara, a territory occupied by Morocco since 1975.

This lack of access has left human rights defenders with the task of monitoring, documenting, and denouncing human rights violations, exposing themselves to reprisals, torture, and threats to their lives.

In response to this situation, the Working Group on Human Rights in Occupied Western Sahara, together with NOVACT and ACAPS, will present its second annual report, “Voices from the Resistance”, at the 58th UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The report documents around a hundred human rights violations in 2024, including systematic torture, harassment, and arbitrary detentions of Sahrawi activists and political prisoners.

The report serves as a tool to continue denouncing the ongoing human rights violations in the occupied territory of Western Sahara and to break the silence of international media. It also calls for the implementation of an independent UN monitoring mechanism in Western Sahara, as well as official protection for observers and human rights defenders.

Colonization and Impunity

It is crucial to highlight the colonial context experienced by the Sahrawi people and Morocco’s impunity regarding the systematic torture of nonviolent Sahrawi activists, effectively silencing the only witnesses to violence and repression.

The data collection for this report has been made possible thanks to the bravery of local defenders who, despite the risk of reprisals, continue to document the reality. Their voices, breaking through the wall of repression, seek to bring the truth to the international stage and demand justice for the Sahrawi people.

Additionally, the report denounces the economic colonization of the territory, where natural resources are exploited by Morocco and international companies to the detriment of the Sahrawi people, in violation of international law and various rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Double Standards and International Complicity

The report questions the credibility of international laws and mechanisms, highlighting the double standards in the decolonization and occupation of territories such as Western Sahara and Palestine.

It demands that both the international community and Spain fulfill their commitment to implementing a referendum and protecting human rights, a promise that remains unfulfilled.