For the attention of: Sir Adrian White, Chief Executive and Chairman, BiwaterBiwater House Station Approach Dorking RH4 1TZ London, 14 May 2019 Re: Biwater’s presence in Western Sahara Dear Sir Adrian, I am writing on behalf of Adala UK, a British NGO focused on documenting human rights violations in the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara, with regard to Biwater’s activities there. We became aware of...
By: Amb. Malainin Lakhal* The Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara remains the last case of decolonization in Africa. The Moroccan military invaded the territory on the 31st of October 1975 despite a clear ruling issued by the International Court of Justice a few days before, on the 16th of October...
The Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Mr. Horst Köhler, will convene delegations from Morocco, the Frente POLISARIO, Algeria and Mauritania in a second roundtable meeting on Western Sahara on 21 and 22 March 2019 in Switzerland. The meeting will take place in accordance with UN Security Council...
As outlined in a number of laws and international rules, once a person is detained it becomes the responsibility of the authorities to protect the prisoner's health. The Moroccan authorities must immediately and without condition transfer the political prisoner Mohamed Tahlil to hospital given that his health has deteriorated. The...
Johannesburg, South Africa (ADV) – South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu will next week on Tuesday, brief members of the media on the state of readiness for the SADC Solidarity Conference with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic / Western Sahara. Early this month, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) announced that South Africa...
Western Saharawi freedom fighters have called on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to urge New Zealand fertiliser companies to stop importing phosphate from the Western Sahara. The territory where the phosphate comes from is in dispute, with the Western Saharawis battling for an independent state. Morocco annexed the region in 1975 after Spain withdrew...
Three-hundred-and-ninety-two runners from 20 countries have tested themselves in as hard a challenge as is imaginable by running through the desert in the 19th edition of the Sahara Marathon, which was held in the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. Swedish participant John Jonatan Fahlencame out on top of the...
The 8th March is celebrated around the world as International Women’s Day, recognising the important role women play in the development of our societies. The Saharawi woman celebrates this day under the constant threat of attacks on her physical integrity, insults, sexual assault, kidnap, ridicule, beatings and other forms of humiliation,...
The 1951 Refugee Convention, signed and ratified by Spain in 1978, sets forward the right to seek international protection. The right to seek asylum is similarly stipulated in the Declaration of Human Rights Article 14, stating that "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum...
Mbarek Daoudi, a well-known Saharawi human rights defender, was arrested, tortured and imprisoned in September 2013. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded in Opinion No. 60/2018 that the arrest and detention of Mbarek Daoudi was arbitrary, breaching Articles 9, 14, 19 and 26 of the ICCPR, and Articles...