Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North-western Africa. It has a surface area of 272,000 square kilometres (105,000 sq mi). Approximately 30% of the territory is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. It is the most sparsely populated country in Africa and the second most sparsely populated country in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at 618,600. Nearly 40% of that population lives in Morocco-controlled Laayoune, the largest city of Western Sahara.
Mohamed Abdelaziz was the 3rd Secretary General of the Polisario Front, from 1976, and the 1st President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from 1982, until his death in 2016.
Ali Salem Tamek is a Sahrawi independence activist and trade unionist.
The National Union of Sahrawi Women is the women's wing of the Polisario Front. It was created in 1974, and claims to have 10,000 members, divided between the Sahrawi refugee camps, the Liberated territories, the Moroccan-occupied part of Western Sahara and the Sahrawi diaspora.
The Independence Intifada or the Second Sahrawi Intifada and also May Intifada is a Sahrawi activist term for a series of disturbances, demonstrations and riots that broke out in May 2005 in the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara and south of Morocco. This event has also been called The El-Aaiun Intifada by the same sources.
The Government of Morocco sees Western Sahara as its Southern Provinces. The Moroccan government considers the Polisario Front as a separatist movement given the alleged Moroccan origins of some of its leaders.
The International Federation for Human Rights is a non-governmental federation for human rights organizations. Founded in 1922, FIDH is the third oldest international human rights organization worldwide after Anti-Slavery International and Save the Children. As of 2020, the organization is made up of a federation of 192 organizations from 112 countries, including Israel and Palestine, including Ligue des droits de l'homme in over 100 countries.
The Gayssot Act or Gayssot Law, enacted on 13 July 1990, makes it an offence in France to question the existence or size of the category of crimes against humanity as defined in the London Charter of 1945, on the basis of which Nazi leaders were convicted by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1945–1946.
Morocco became a highly repressive country under the absolute monarchy of King Hassan II, and continues to be considered repressive under the reign of King Mohammed VI, though the latter has instituted some reforms. Dozens of journalists, artists, and ordinary citizens are regularly sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for exercising basic rights enjoyed elsewhere in the world, such as freedom of the press, protesting the government, or criticizing government officials. Morocco heavily restricts basic human rights, such as freedom of speech, the right to assembly, and the right to criticize officials. Moroccans also feel the pressures of inflation within the country, such as the lack of basic services like healthcare, clean water, and the difficulty of parents to access quality education for their children. While there have been a handful of reforms that have been generally welcomed internationally, most Moroccans feel this is insufficient, and continue to be unhappy with the trajectory of the country under the policies of King Mohammed VI, despite his transition of the government to an ostensible constitutional monarchy. Under his father, King Hassan II, Morocco had one of the worst human rights records in Africa and the world, especially during the time period known as the "Years Of Lead", which lasted from the early 1960s until the late 1980s; it was a period in the country's history that was known for the brutal repression of political dissent and opposition, that involved wide-scale arrests, arbitrary detention, lengthy imprisonment, and even killings of political opponents. Currently, Morocco continues to face some of these issues, as well as other human rights problems, such as poor prison conditions, the mistreatment of women and the LGBT community, and the widespread use of torture by police. Despite the considerable improvements made in the last several years under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, who has rolled back some of his father's harshest decrees, repression of political dissidence, and torture of citizens by officials, is still commonplace in Morocco today.
The Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Violations of Human Rights Committed by the Moroccan State, or ASVDH, is a Sahrawi human rights organization in the Moroccan-occupied areas of Western Sahara.
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights is one of the biggest Moroccan human rights non-governmental organizations. It was founded on June 24, 1979, in Rabat to work for the preservation of human dignity and the respect, protection, defense and promotion of human rights in Morocco and Western Sahara. It uses different means to achieve its objectives such as the publication of a monthly newspaper, sit-ins and the holding of conferences. The AMDH considers it equally crucial to build partnerships with internal and external organizations and networks in order to be stronger in the fight for human rights.
Since the end of the 1980s, several members of POLISARIO have decided to discontinue their military or political activities for the Polisario Front. Most of them returned from the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria to Morocco, among them a few founder members and senior officials. Some of them are now actively promoting Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, which Morocco considers its Southern Provinces. Their individual reasons to stop working for POLISARIO, as reported in the media, vary, but include allegations of human rights violations, monopolization and abuse of power, blackmailing and sequestering the refugee population in Tindouf, and squandering foreign aid. They also claim POLISARIO is controlled by the government of Algeria and as one former member of POLISARIO put it, "[was] a group of Moroccan students who were urging the Spanish colonizer to leave and who had never claimed independence or the separation from motherland Morocco."
The Commission nationale consultative des droits de l'homme is a French governmental organization created in 1947 by an arrêté from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to monitor the respect for human rights in the country. It may acts as counsellor for the government and propose laws, and then survey the application of governmental measures and laws voted in Parliament.
Sahrawi nationality law is the law of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic's (SADR) governing nationality and citizenship. The SADR is a partially recognized state which claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, but only administers part of it. The SADR also administers Sahrawi refugee camps.
The Human Rights League was founded in Belgium on 8 May 1901, after the in 1898 established Ligue des Droits de l'Homme in France. The Belgian initiative came from Eugène Monseur, a professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles.
The Gdeim Izik protest camp was a protest camp in Western Sahara, established on 9 October 2010 and lasting into November that year, with related incidents occurring in the aftermath of its dismantlement on 8 November. The primary focus of the protests was against "ongoing discrimination, poverty and human rights abuses against local citizens".
El Wali Amidane is a Sahrawi human rights activist and an outspoken opponent of the Moroccan invasion of the territory of Western Sahara. He is known for his imprisonment and subsequent torture received in response to his activities on behalf of Saharawi human rights.
Sidiki Kaba is a Senegalese politician who served as the 15th Prime Minister of Senegal from 6 March 2024 to 3 April 2024.
Human rights in Senegal are generally better respected than in other countries in the continent, but cases of violation are still regularly reported.
Aicha Duihi is a Moroccan Sahrawi human rights activist who is the president of the Sahara Observatory for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights. Duihi has advocated against the Polisario Front's camps in the Tindouf Province of Southwestern Algeria on the border of Western Sahara, and serves as a spokesperson for those kidnapped and those being held captive in the Polisario camps. She seeks to combat propaganda and misinformation which further marginalise vulnerable women.
