HRW and AI: UNSC should support human rights monitoring
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have sent a letter to the members of the Security Council, calling on the UN to establish a monitoring mechanism in Western Sahara - both the Moroccan-controlled and the Polisario-run areas.
In a letter sent to members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Amnesty International called for the inclusion of a human rights monitoring component in the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), when it votes for its renewal on 30 April 2009. Amnesty International believes that independent monitoring of the human rights situation in Western Sahara, a territory annexed by Morocco in 1975, and the Tindouf camps under the authority of the Polisario Front in south-western Algeria is integral to ensuring the human rights protection of the populations.
Shorty after the deployment of MINURSO in September 1991, Amnesty International had already urged that human rights monitoring be part of its mandate given the persistence of allegations of human rights violations both in Western Sahara and the Tindouf camps in Algeria. However, no such action has been taken to date. Amnesty International reiterated this call in a letter addressing all members of the UNSC dated 24 April 2009, urging them to vote for the inclusion of an independent monitoring mechanism into the MINURSO mandate, particularly as both sides to the conflict accuse the other of serious human rights violations and of exploiting human rights concerns for their respective political ends.
In his latest report on the situation concerning Western Sahara (S/2009/200), the Secretary General reaffirmed the UN’s obligation to uphold human rights in all its operations, even though the “the United Nations has no staff on the ground dedicated to monitoring respect for human rights in the Territory [Western Sahara] or in the refugee camps near Tindouf.” Amnesty International welcomes that a number of members of the UNSC have expressed their support for the need to address this lack of independent human rights monitoring during last week’s deliberations of the UNSC on the renewal of MINURSO’s mandate.
The fact that human rights violations have continued in the past years even in the presence of MINURSO in Western Sahara clearly shows the need for the UN to take measures to enhance the human rights protection in Western Sahara and the Tindouf camps. A MINURSO without a human rights component would be further undermined as it witnesses in silence ongoing human rights violations. The inclusion of a human rights monitoring component in the MINURSO’s mandate is a necessary first step toward addressing this problem. The forthcoming renewal of MINURSO’s mandate provides an excellent opportunity to do so.
Background
The human rights situation has improved in Morocco since the “years of the lead.” This was the period between 1956 and 1999, which was characterized by repression of political dissent, the enforced disappearance of hundreds of individuals, arbitrary detention of thousands of others, and the systemic use of torture and other ill-treatment. However this progress has been overshadowed by continuing human rights violations in Western Sahara.
For the Moroccan authorities, expressing a view in favour of the independence of Western Sahara remains taboo. Sahrawi supporters of the right to self-determination and independence of the region, as well as human rights defenders and journalists who have monitored and reported on human rights violations committed by the Moroccan security forces in this context have face intimidation, harassment, prosecution and even imprisonment. Sahrawi activists continue to be hampered by politically-motivated administrative obstacles preventing them from legally registering their associations. Many Sahrawi human rights and civil society activists have been imprisoned following demonstrations calling for the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara and many have reportedly been tortured or otherwise ill-treated during questioning.
Amnesty International has also repeatedly expressed its concerns about the impunity of those accused of serious human rights abuses in the Tindouf camps in the 1970s and 1980s, including arbitrary and secret detention for prolonged periods, torture and ill-treatment, deaths in custody and extrajudicial executions. Little independent information is available on the current human rights situation in the Tindouf camps.
Human Rights Watch
17 April 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
Sources: Human Rights Watch - Letter to the UNSC urging for human rights monitoring in Western Sahara Amnesty International - UNSC Members should support independent human rights monitoring in Western Sahara and the Tindouf camps.
Africa's last colonySince 1975, three quarters of the Western Sahara territory has been illegally occupied by Morocco. The original population lives divided between those suffering human rights abuses under the Moroccan occupation and those living in exile in Algerian refugee camps. For more than 40 years, the Saharawi await the fulfilment of their legitimate right to self-determination.
Since 1975, three quarters of the Western Sahara territory has been illegally occupied by Morocco. The original population lives divided between those suffering human rights abuses under the Moroccan occupation and those living in exile in Algerian refugee camps. For more than 40 years, the Saharawi await the fulfilment of their legitimate right to self-determination.
