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...
Brussels – The President of British NGO Adala UK, Sidi Fadel, concluded a visit to Belgium last week where he met with MEPs from across the political spectrum. During these meetings he discussed the ruling of the ECJ that invalidated the trade agreement between Morocco and the EU, stating it...
IN THE SAHARA, rain is said to bring good luck. So negotiators from the United Nations should be encouraged by a recent downpour in Laayoune, the capital of Western Sahara. On December 5th they will gather in Geneva to try, yet again, to resolve the differences between Morocco, which rules...
Please find here our August 2018 Newsletter.
The creation of a siege, a wave of arrests, police violence, demonstrations and a media blockade. The UN Special Envoy, Horst Khöler, recently visited the region of Western Sahara in order to gain a deeper understanding of the conflict. The Special Envoy, following a visit to the Saharawi Refugee camps...