Letter to the UNSC urging for human rights monitoring in Western Sahara

17 de Abril 2009

Your Excellency,

Human Rights Watch is writing this letter to urge your support at the UN Security Council for establishing a program of human rights monitoring for Western Sahara and the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria.

As the Security Council deliberates renewing the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which expires at the end of this month, we urge that the mandate be revised to encompass on-the-ground human rights monitoring, or that another UN mechanism assume this function.

The Security Council should establish such a mechanism because the United Nations has a special obligation to Western Sahara as a designated "non-self-governing territory" whose political future is contested, and where there is no other regular, independent on-the-ground monitoring of human rights.

As the Report of the Secretary General on the Situation Concerning Western Sahara, dated April 13, 2009 states, "The United Nations has no staff on the ground dedicated to monitoring respect for human rights in the Territory or in the refugee camps near Tindouf, since MINURSO does not have a specific human rights mandate and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has no presence in the Territory or in the refugee camps near Tindouf."

A UN monitoring presence would serve as a neutral source of human rights reporting, amidst the allegations that the adversaries in the conflict level against one another. In so doing, it can enhance the environment for negotiations by building trust and ensuring that rights are respected.

It is important to note that such monitoring is a standard component of peacekeeping operations elsewhere; MINURSO is nearly the only peacekeeping unit under UN auspices that has no human rights monitoring component. The Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) for its part conducted a single research mission in 2006, but never formally published its report from that visit.

Human Rights Watch published in December 2008 a detailed report, Human Rights in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf Refugee Camps. We found a pattern of violations by Moroccan authorities of the right of Sahrawis to speak, associate and assemble peacefully in support of self-determination. The report describes how security forces arbitrarily arrest demonstrators and suspected Sahrawi activists, sometimes beating them and subjecting them to torture, and force them to sign incriminating police statements, all with virtual impunity; the courts then convict and imprison them after unfair trials.

Human Rights Watch devotes a substantial portion of its report to human rights in the Polisario-run refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. While we did not find systematic violations of human rights at the present time, the concerns we noted, including the absence of open debate on fundamental political issues and the survival, in a limited number of cases, of practices related to slavery, heighten our concern that the rights of the Sahrawis living in these camps are vulnerable due to the camps' extreme isolation, the lack of regular, on-the-ground human rights monitoring, and the lack of oversight by the host country of Algeria.

For this reason, we have emphasized that any program of UN human rights monitoring must cover both Moroccan-administered territories and the Polisario-run camps in Algeria. The Polisario Front's verbal acceptance of UN monitoring should be put to the test. Morocco should favor such monitoring as well, as a means of providing independent verification of its repeated assertions that the Polisario Front, with Algerian complicity, is holding the Tindouf camp population captive against its will and severely repressing its rights.

Human rights monitoring would essentially involve having UN human rights officers based permanently in the Western Sahara and the camps, either as part of MINURSO or as a stand-alone OHCHR mission mandated by either the Security Council or the Human Rights Council. There, they would be able to monitor and report on the situation, identify the key human rights concerns and their causes, and be able to raise these with the relevant authorities.

MINURSO is the obvious candidate to conduct human rights monitoring in the camps and in Western Sahara. Although its original and eponymous mandate-to organize a referendum-has been stymied since 2000, its sizable locally-based staff, resources and long experience may make it the entity best placed to perform this function. In addition to monitoring the cease-fire, MINURSO operates, together with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, a program of family visits and other confidence-building measures.

Even if the Security Council does not expand the mandate of MINURSO to include human rights, it should endorse another monitoring mechanism, such as a field presence of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Regular rights monitoring is essential to having an accurate picture of the situation and to ensuring that Morocco on the one hand and, on the other, Algeria and the Polisario Front, respect the rights of persons under their respective control. By accepting such monitoring, the parties would show good faith and nurture the mutual confidence needed to advance the political negotiations over the territory's future.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Sarah Leah Whitson Steve Crawshaw

Executive Director United Nations Advocacy Director

Middle East & North Africa division

Morocco/Western Sahara: Irregularities in Sahrawi activist's trial

Amnesty International is concerned about the recent sentencing of Sahrawi activist Mustafa Abdel Dayem, currently on hunger strike, to three years in prison on the basis of what he claims was a falsified record of statements he made in custody. The organization is also concerned that other aspects of Mustafa Abdel Dayem's trial proceedings did not meet international fair trial standards as he was denied the right to legal counsel during his appeal hearing. His case was submitted several days ago to Morocco's highest court, the Court of Cassation, which can review the alleged irregularities in his trial and, if confirmed, dismiss the ruling and send the case for retrial by a lower court.

Amnesty International fears that Mustafa Abdel Dayem's conviction may have been intended to punish him for his public support for the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara and for the Polisario Front, which calls for an independent state in Western Sahara and runs a self-proclaimed government-in-exile in refugee camps in south-western Algeria.

Mustafa Abdel Dayem, member of both the Assa-Zag Branch of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights and the Sahrawi Journalists' and Writers' Union, was arrested without a warrant on the evening of 27 October 2008 at his home in Assa in southern Morocco and taken to the Royal Gendarmerie Station in the same city. His arrest followed anti-government protests in Assa earlier that day by Sahrawi members of the population calling for the creation of employment opportunities and the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination. While Mustafa Abdel Dayem claims not to have participated in the protests, he admits to having lowered the Moroccan flag from the 'Alal Al-Fassi secondary school, where he worked as a security guard. He explains that his action was intended to show his support and solidarity with the demonstrators and his opposition to the intervention of law enforcement officers to break up the protests.

On 4 November 2008, the Court of First Instance of Guelmimsentenced Mustafa Abdel Dayem to a three-year prison term and a fine of 50,000 dirhams (approximately US$6,220) for offending the flag of the Kingdom of Morocco, rebelling and inciting an armed gathering, participating in the destruction of public property and participating in the contempt of public officials on duty. The sentence also included a prohibition on Mustafa Abdel Dayem from practicing teaching or working in any educational institution for a period of 10 years. Mustafa Abdel Dayem insists that the record of his questioning by the Royal Gendarmerie (procès-verbal), on which his conviction was largely based, was falsified -- attributing to him acts which he neither committed nor confessed to committing during his interrogation at the Royal Gendarmerie station in Assa. He argued that he had signed a procès-verbal following his questioning, whereas the one presented to the court was unsigned. During the hearing, his defence team walked out in protest at the court's refusal to call on the Royal Gendarmerie to produce as evidence the procès-verbal signed by Mustafa Abdel Dayem.

During his appeal trial, Mustafa Abdel Dayem was denied his right to be defended by legal counsel. According to members of his defence team, none of his lawyers was summoned to the appeal hearings which took place at the Court of Appeals of Agadir. Furthermore, Mustafa Abdel Dayem claims that his request to postpone the second hearing on 11 December until his lawyers were present or until he had had the opportunity to constitute a different defence team was rejected by the court, which confirmed the lower court's conviction later that day. On 19 December his lawyers submitted an appeal against the ruling to the Court of Cassation, which is mandated to review cases only on questions of procedure, but no date has yet been set for its consideration of the case.

Mustafa Abdel Dayem, currently incarcerated at Inzegane Prison in Agadir, has reportedly been on hunger strike since 13 December 2008 to protest the Court of First Instance's refusal to request as evidence his signed procès-verbal to the Royal Gendarmerie and the Court of Appeal's insistence on pronouncing its decision despite the absence of his defence team.. Seven of his family members in Assa, including his parents, who are elderly, started a hunger strike on the same day in solidarity with him, threatening to continue it until he is retried in a trial meeting international standards.

Background

Since 2005, dozens of Sahrawis have been charged with violent conduct and detained after being arrested during or after demonstrations against Moroccan rule in Western Sahara. Many of those arrested allege that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated to force them to sign confessions, to intimidate them from protesting further or to punish them for demanding the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara. The Moroccan authorities continue to claim that those imprisoned were involved in criminal acts and are not being held for their views. Amnesty International has serious concerns about the fairness of their trials, including that some of the evidence was tainted on account of unexamined claims of torture or other ill-treatment and that defendants were not permitted to call defence witnesses

In October 2008, Yahya Mohamed ElHafed, member of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders, was found guilty of violent conduct and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in connection with his participation in a protest in Tan Tan against Moroccan rule. Eight other defendants received sentences of up to four years in prison. Allegations that they were tortured during questioning were not investigated.