Geneva (UN Human Rights Council) 10 September 2025 (SPS) – The United Nations headquarters in Geneva today hosted an international human rights side event on the margins of the 60th session of the Human Rights Council under the title: “No Defence allowed: The Crime of Being Sahrawi.” The event was organized by international organizations, including Front Line Defenders and the International Service for Human Rights, RAFTO, and with the support of the Permanent Mission of South Africa.
The side event was moderated by Norwegian Jurist Ms. Tone Sørfonn Moe, who opened by stressing the seriousness of the conditions of Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan jails. She denounced the siege and blackout imposed by the Moroccan occupation authorities on them and, more broadly, on the human rights situation in the occupied territories, describing it as dangerous and unacceptable.
The Representative of Front Line Defenders, highlighted the case of Sahrawi human rights activist Mohamed Hali, winner of the organization’s 2025 award, as well as that of Hussein Amaadour, a Sahrawi political prisoner extradited to Morocco by Spanish authorities after seeking political asylum in Spain.
For his part, Professor Mads Andenas, former chair of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, focused on the precarious conditions of Sahrawi political prisoners and underlined the need to allow international experts and observers to investigate and assess their situation.
Former Sahrawi political prisoner Brahim Moussayih detailed the daily violations endured by detainees and called on the international community to give special attention to this neglected issue.
Sahrawi human rights defender Hassana Abba Moulay Dahi Badi presented testimony on the methods of harassment and torture suffered by Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons, as well as the hardships faced by their families, deprived of basic conditions for visits. He insisted that international protection and human rights monitoring in Western Sahara are vital to alleviating the severity of the situation.
Mahfoud Bechri, representing NOVACT (Nonviolence International), denounced the siege imposed on the occupied territories of Western Sahara, which targets both Sahrawi and international human rights defenders as well as media outlets. He called for expanding MINURSO’s mandate to include human rights monitoring and reporting in the occupied territories.
The event concluded with remarks from Tsholofelo Tsheole, Deputy Permanent Representative of South Africa to the UN in Geneva, who stressed that arbitrary detention in Western Sahara has become a systematic tool to suppress peaceful resistance. She affirmed that denying the Sahrawi people their right to self-determination is “unacceptable,” recalling her country’s own historic struggle against apartheid.
In closing, Sahrawi activist El Ghalia Djimi urged participants to defend human rights in Western Sahara, emphasizing that the repression and blackout imposed by Moroccan authorities on the Sahrawi people cannot continue unchecked.
The side event shed light on the systematic violations suffered by Sahrawi political prisoners, ranging from arbitrary arrests, solitary confinement, and torture to extract forced confessions, to unfair trials, transfer to prisons far from their families, and denial of medical care and legal assistance.
Participants also discussed UN resolutions concerning Sahrawi political prisoners, particularly the Gdeim Izik group, and called for their implementation and the immediate release of all Sahrawi political prisoners.
The event was attended by representatives of diplomatic missions accredited in Geneva, human rights organizations, and Sahrawi activists. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
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