Geneva (Switzerland), March 13, 2026 (SPS) – Sahrawi human rights defender Ghalia Abdallah Djimi delivered an intervention before the United Nations Human Rights Council during its 61st session, under agenda item three, in which she warned of the deterioration of human rights conditions.
Djimi focused in particular on the systematic violations in the occupied areas of Western Sahara, expressing deep concern over the use of arbitrary detention as a repressive tool by Morocco to silence Sahrawi human rights defenders, journalists, and students. She noted that they are subjected to short- and long-term detentions without legal basis, often accompanied by allegations of torture, ill-treatment, and violations of fair trial guarantees.
She described these practices as part of “a broader pattern aimed at deterring peaceful expression and silencing calls for the exercise of the right to self-determination,” citing the case of the political prisoners of the Gdeim Izik group as an example of the criminalization of legitimate human rights work.
She also pointed to Morocco’s disregard for the opinions of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and its failure to provide effective remedies or ensure accountability, stressing that the absence of independent international monitoring in the occupied territory aggravates the scale of these violations.
She called on the Human Rights Council to exert pressure for the immediate release of political prisoners and to reconsider the establishment of an independent and permanent mechanism to monitor and document human rights violations in Western Sahara.
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