Mhamed Hali Wins 2025 Front Line Defenders Award Amid Crackdown on Saharawi Human Rights Defenders
Working Group on Human Rights in Occupied Western Sahara – 22 May 2025
Saharawi human rights defender Mhamed Hali, who for years has been arbitrary deprived of his right to practice as a lawyer in the Moroccan judicial system due to his support for the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, has been awarded the 2025 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.
“This award only strengthens my resolve to keep fighting to exercise my right to practice law. For many years, my dream has been to work as a human rights lawyer and defend the rights of my people and the human rights defenders of Western Sahara currently suffering behind Moroccan bars”, said Hali. “I dedicate the award to all Saharawi human rights defenders for their tremendous efforts in protecting human rights at great personal risk and consequences”.
The Working Group on Human Rights in Occupied Western Sahara, a collective of Sahrawi and international human rights defenders that documents and reports on violations committed by Morocco inside the occupied territory, added that “the award sheds light on the intolerable human rights conditions in Western Sahara for at-risk human rights defenders, including Mhamed Hali, and the impunity with which Morocco represses them. By recognizing Hali and his work, Front Line Defenders sheds a powerful light on a closed territory where international human rights monitors and media are banned.”
For the past six years, Hali has fought to practice as a human rights lawyer in his homeland of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco has illegally occupied since 1975. The case has garnered significant international attention from the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and numerous organizations launched campaigns and appeals advocating for Mr. Hali’s right to practice law. The case was also highlighted in the UN Secretary-General’s latest report on Western Sahara.
Tone Sørfonn Moe, Hali’s international lawyer who nominated him for the award, said: “M’Hamed’s case is emblematic of the reprisals carried out against defenders from Western Sahara, and this award is a recognition of their important work documenting and reporting to the world a reality that Morocco is trying to hide”.
Human rights defenders from Western Sahara face systematic repression by Moroccan authorities. Serving as root cause for these violations is the continued denial of the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, the very prerequisite of all other rights. Defenders are dismissed from jobs, denied education and social rights, and barred from employment—forcing many to choose between survival and their principles. In addition to this economic strangulation, defenders face harassment, torture, defamation and arbitrary detention. Many, like the 19 Gdeim Izik prisoners sentenced to up to life in prison in 2017, remain jailed for their activism. Sahrawi political prisoners endure harsh conditions, isolation, and lack of legal or medical access. The case of M´hamed Hali, as a lawyer barred from practicing, highlights violations of the right to legal counsel.
The Working Group on Human Rights in Occupied Western Sahara thanks Front Line Defenders for their support and urges the international community to protect Sahrawi defenders, demand access to the territory for media and rights monitors, and press Morocco to release political prisoners and ensure Hali´s right to practice as a lawyer.
Contact: Tone Sørfonn Moe, lawyer, Working Group on Human Rights in Occupied Western Sahara,
tone@vest-sahara.no