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Western Sahara: Appeal for Human Rights Monitoring in MINURSO Mandate

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The US-Western Sahara Foundation sent a letter to Security Council President Nestor Osorio of Colombia asking for human rights monitoring when the MINURSO mandate is extended. The group believes that adding a human rights mandate will stop the ongoing violence against the Saharawi people.






April 5, 2011

The U.S.-Western Sahara Foundation sent an appeal today to Nestor Osorio, President of the United Nations Security Council, that was signed by sixty individuals including the leaders of non-governmental organizations, former MINURSO diplomats and staff personnel, and others to include human rights monitoring when the MINURSO mandate comes up for review later this month.

The letter is in response to the violence being committed against the Sahrawi people by the Moroccan authorities in Moroccan-Occupied Western Sahara.

"The United Nations Security Council has both a moral and a legal obligation to protect the lives of the Sahrawis in Moroccan-Occupied Western Sahara because it is the delay in the long promised referendum that is causing this violence as Sahrawis are regularly tortured, imprisoned and even killed simply for advocating for what the U.N. promised them: the right to vote on self-determination," said Suzanne Scholte, Chairman of the US-Western Sahara Foundation.  While Morocco continues to hold hundreds of Sahrawis in detention, the latest escalation in violence occurred last November when Moroccan authorities stormed a tent city that had been erected by the Sahrawis to peacefully protest their unfair and discriminatory treatment in their homeland.

Part of the agreement by the United Nations in 1991 in order to establish a cease fire between Morocco and the POLISARIO was the promise that the issue would be resolved through a free and fair referendum on Western Sahara, the only African country that has yet to achieve decolonization.  MINURSO is the only currrent United Nations peacekeeping mission without a human rights monitoring mandate.  This violence against the Sahrawis has been documented and reported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the World Organization Against Torture, Reporters Without Borders, the U.S. State Department, and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights.

Among the signatories of the letter were those who had served with MINURSO including former Deputy Chairman Ambassador Frank Ruddy and former Registration Officer, Mara Hanna; thirty-three NGO leaders from Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Western Sahara; as well as human rights advocates ranging from college professors to Christian pastors, teachers to former and current U.S. Congressional staff.

The full text of the letter is reprinted below.

Text of Letter Signed by 60 NGO Leaders, Former Minurso, Human Rights Advocates

April 5, 2011

H.E. Ambassador Nestor Osorio
President of the United Nations Security Council
Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations
140 East 57th Street, 5th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10022

Your Excellency:

We are writing to urge the United Nations Security Council to add human rights monitoring to its mission in Western Sahara, MINURSO, when the MINURSO mandate comes up for review this month.  The need for human rights monitoring is critical to stop the ongoing violence against the Sahrawi people in occupied Western Sahara.  This violence has been documented and reported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the World Organization Against Torture, Reporters Without Borders, and the U.S. State Department.  Most recently, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights issued a report on last November's violent crackdown on the Sahrawis who had peacefully assembled a tent city to protest their unfair and discriminatory treatment in their own homeland.  The Center described "state-sponsored violence" including torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, failure to follow criminal procedures, and repression including limitations on freedom of expression and economic and social marginalization of the Sahrawis.

Because this ongoing violence against the Sahrawis is a direct result of the failure of the United Nations to follow through on the long-promised referendum to resolve this issue, the Security Council has an especially important obligation to protect those whose lives are in grave danger simply for their support for the right to self-determination.  In fact, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that Morocco's human rights violations against the Sahrawi people are a direct result of the denial of the basic right to self-determination.

Finally, MINURSO is the only UN peacekeeping mission in the world without a mandate to monitor human rights.  There is no reason for this mission to be exempt from human rights monitoring especially in light of the ongoing and state sponsored violence against the Sahrawis by the Moroccan authorities.

We thank you for your consideration of this request and respectfully request that you distribute our letter to the other members of the Security Council.

Sincerely,

cc: The Honorable Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State
      The Honorable Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations
      The Honorable Michel Posner
      The Honorable Ban Ki Moon


 

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