Geneva (Human Rights Council) 10 September 2025 (SPS)– Representative of NOVACT, and human rights defender, Mr. Bachir Mahfud, emphasized in an intervention during a Side Event organized Today in Palais des Nations in Geneva, under the title: “No Defense Allowed: The Crime of Being Saharawi” that the lack of accountability for the serious and deteriorated human rights situation in Western Sahara remains a critical issue.
He stressed that the responsibility of the international community to protect human rights in occupied Western Sahara is “not just a moral imperative, but a matter of international law and key to achieving a lasting and just peace.”
Mahfoud recalled that, despite numerous UN resolutions, the situation on the ground “remains dire,” with the absence of independent, impartial, and sustained human rights monitoring creating “a vacuum of accountability.”
He pointed to documentation by organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that describes how Morocco, as the occupying power, engages in systematic repression of Sahrawi human rights defenders and pro-self-determination activists, “creating an environment of fear and converting Western Sahara in a big prison.”
He warned that the absence of independent media and human rights observers has created “an information vacuum,” allowing the Moroccan authorities to tightly control information and conceal the full extent of violations.
He gave as a “vicious example” the case of the Gdeim-Izik prisoners, held in arbitrary detention since 2010 in “very inhumane conditions very far from their families,” despite repeated UN calls for their release. This situation, he said, contributes to a “growing culture of impunity” that puts “the reputation of the international human rights system at stake.”
Mahfoud welcomed the initiative of Front-Line Defenders in dedicating visibility this year to the Gdeim Izik group,and underlined three main points he considered crucial for the conversation on Western Sahara.
The first point concerns the violations and lack of fundamental freedoms, where Sahrawis face restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly, he said. Protests are violently dispersed, and activists are harassed, intimidated, and imprisoned after unfair trials.
The lack of oversight is also a concern as he indicated, recalling that the UN mission MINURSO is the only modern UN’s mission without a human rights mandate, which prevents effective reporting and allows violations to continue with impunity, despite repeated calls for change.
Another field of concern, Mahfoud adds, is the humanitarian crisis in the Sahrawi refugee camps, where the refugees suffer from chronic humanitarian problems, including malnutrition and anemia, which require not just aid but a political solution guaranteeing self-determination and return.
Concluding, Mahfoud called on the international community, and particularly the UN Security Council, to act by granting a human rights mandate to MINURSO, pressing Morocco to allow access for journalists and observers, protecting human rights defenders, and responding to the humanitarian emergency in the refugee camps.
“Despite the sense of desperation, cruelty and injustice,” he declared, “we will continue the struggle until we fulfill our legitimate desires for freedom, dignity and justice.”
The Side Event was organized by Front Line Defenders, International Service for Human Right, RAFT, and supported by the Permanent Mission of South Africa. It featured panelists Mads Andenas, former president-rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; Sahrawi human rights defenders Brahim Moussayih, Hassana Abba, and Mahfoud Bechri.
The session was moderated by Tone Sørfonn Moe, with opening remarks by Priyal Sepaha and closing remarks by Tsholofelo Tsheole, Deputy Permanent Representative of South Africa to the UN in Geneva and Sahrawi human rights Defender, Mrs. El Ghalia Djimi. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
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