Geneva, 27 Jun 2025 (SPS) – Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, expressed concerns on Friday over Moroccan police violence against Sahrawi human rights activists Sidi Mohammed Daddach and Mustapha Dah. She emphasized the urgent need for Moroccan authorities to halt the repression of human rights defenders in Western Sahara.
"I have received disturbing reports of Moroccan police violence against Sahrawi human rights defenders Sidi Mohammed Daddach and Mustapha Dah following an annual commemoration event on June 19," she wrote on social media.
Indeed, Sahrawi media reported that Moroccan occupation forces assaulted Sahrawi activists after a gathering marking the 55th anniversary of the Zemla Intifada—the historic uprising led by the late Mohamed Sidi Brahim Bassiri on June 17, 1970, against Spanish colonial rule.
According to these reports, Moroccan forces—both uniformed and plainclothed—violently beat participants at the event, including the president of the Sahrawi Committee for the Right to Self-Determination, Daddach Mohamed; a member of the Sahrawi Initiative Against Moroccan Occupation (ISACOM), Mustapha Dah; and a well-known human rights defender in occupied Western Sahara, Brahim Farrik.
"Moroccan authorities must end the repression of human rights defenders (HRDs) in Western Sahara," Lawlor demanded.
Last April, the UN Special Rapporteur and other UN experts expressed "grave concern" over Morocco’s months-long crackdown on human rights defenders, journalists, and protest voices in occupied Western Sahara, "in retaliation for their support of the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination."
In a communication sent to the Moroccan government last February, Lawlor and other UN experts raised "serious concerns about acts of intimidation and defamation against Mr. Tamek, as well as the ongoing surveillance and presence of security agents outside his home."
The experts also voiced concerns over "restrictions on the freedom of movement and assembly for Mr. Tamek, members of CODESA (Sahrawi Collective of Human Rights Defenders), and other human rights defenders in Western Sahara."
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