Voices breaking free from repression – Human Rights violations in the occupied Western Sahara 2024

The current scenario of erosion of the legitimacy of the international architecture for the protection of human rights and the questioning of the effectiveness of international law, following the genocide in Palestine, also has an impact on Western Sahara. Since 1963, Western Sahara has been designated by the United Nations as a non-self-governing territory with the right to self-determination, in accordance with UN resolutions 1514 (XV) and 1541 (XV). The referendum promised in 1991 was never held and Morocco continues to occupy approximately 75% of the territory of Western Sahara. Although the United Nations General Assembly or the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination have called in recent years to respect the commitment to the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people, countries central to the process of conflict resolution, such as France, recently joined the dynamic led by the United States, Israel and Spain, to disregard international law and openly support the illegal occupation by force and plunder. The return of Donald Trump to the US presidency raises fears of a new turn of the screw in this dynamic, in the heat of the economic and commercial interests that exist between this country and Morocco. 

This double route of occupation, military, police and administrative, on the one hand, and economic on the other, has intensified in an extreme way during 2024, to the point that, in a good part of the hundred or so violations included in this report, a direct link can be established between the victimizing facts and the commercial interests of Moroccan and international companies, especially European ones. Especially with regard to the growing dynamics of destruction of property, theft and expropriation of land from the Saharawi people, forced displacement, impoverishment and economic discrimination and cultural annihilation that has been occurring throughout the Occupied Territory.  

Based on the documented violations, the report presents trends and most noteworthy cases.

Read the executive summary here.