Geneva (Human Rights Council) 10 September 2025 (SPS) – Sahrawi human rights defender Brahim Moussayih affirmed in his intervention during an international human rights panel held today in Geneva under the title “No Defense Allowed: The Crime of Being Saharawi” that the human rights situation in Western Sahara is “deeply concerning,” according to all specialized reports monitoring violations in the region.
Moussayih pointed out that Sahrawi youth, including human rights defenders and students, are at the forefront of the systematic repression practiced by the Moroccan occupying power, explaining that targeting this group is in fact targeting a generation of human rights defenders, students, and unemployed youth on whom the Sahrawi cause relies to ensure the continuation of the struggle for the right to self-determination.
He stressed that judicial repression is one of the most dangerous forms of restrictions on freedoms in Western Sahara, where Moroccan authorities use legal and judicial mechanisms not to ensure justice and rights, but as a tool of retaliation against Sahrawi human rights activists and to deter them from carrying out their legitimate roles in monitoring and documenting human rights violations.
Moussayih explained that among the most prominent manifestations of this legal repression against Sahrawi activists are arbitrary arrests, as 88 cases were documented in 2024 without genuine legal justification or based on fabricated charges. This is followed by unfair judicial proceedings, where activists are subjected to trials that lack the conditions of fairness, such as the absence of the right to defense or reliance on confessions signed under coercion.
After this comes the stage of heavy sentences, with harsh prison or financial penalties aimed at deterrence, in addition to vague criminalization through charges such as “undermining internal security” or “insulting authorities,” used to criminalize the exercise of freedom of expression and assembly.
He referred to the opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in the case of the Sahrawi student and political prisoner Hussein Amadour, a Sahrawi unionist and student activist from occupied Western Sahara who sought asylum in Spain, only to be forcibly deported to Morocco in January 2019 without having his asylum claim examined. He was later sentenced by Morocco to twelve years in prison in a trial that failed to meet the conditions of a fair trial.
According to Moussayih, the UN Working Group considered that depriving Hussein of his liberty constituted arbitrary detention, as it contradicted Articles 9 and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which are essentially linked to the conditions of a fair trial and treatment while in police custody.
The Working Group therefore called on Morocco to take the necessary measures to address the case of Hussein without delay and to bring it into conformity with applicable international standards, including those set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
It also considered that the appropriate measure, in light of all the circumstances of the case, was the immediate release of Hussein, along with the right to obtain reparations, particularly in the form of compensation, in accordance with international law.
Furthermore, the Group urged Morocco to ensure a comprehensive and independent investigation into the circumstances of Hussein arbitrary detention and to take the necessary measures against those responsible for violating his rights.
However, despite all these UN opinions, in addition to the opinion issued in the case of the Sahrawi students in 2020, and the opinion regarding the Gdeim Izik group and other opinions that call on Morocco to expedite the release of political prisoners, the occupying power continues to prolong their unjustified detention.
Moussayih highlighted the direct effects of this repression, such as silencing voices, which creates a climate of fear that prevents activists from exercising their rights, and turning Western Sahara into an isolated area. Evidence of this, he said, is that since December 2014 until 2024, 327 foreign human rights activists and journalists have been denied entry to Western Sahara. UN rapporteurs have also been prevented from visiting, despite repeated requests submitted over the years.
He added that the Moroccan occupying power works to weaken Sahrawi civil society, as the targeting of human rights defenders leads to the paralysis of associations and rights organizations. More specifically, the targeting of youth and students is evident, as illustrated by data showing the ages of the political prisoners being targeted.
Moussayih stressed that legal repression represents a double danger: it is a tool used by the Moroccan occupying power to restrict rights and freedoms within Sahrawi civil society, especially among the new generation of defenders, but it also represents a model of collective punishment through the imposition of long sentences, the transfer of Sahrawi political prisoners far from Western Sahara, and the restrictions imposed on their families.
Concluding his intervention, Moussayih emphasized that confronting this phenomenon is a collective responsibility, in order to ensure the primacy of the rule of law instead of the “law of force” that the enemies of human rights seek to impose in the world, citing Palestine as testimony to this situation.
The panel was organized by Front Line Defenders, the International Service for Human Rights, and the Rafto Foundation, with the support of the Permanent Mission of South Africa. Participants included Professor Mads Andenas, former chair of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and Sahrawi human rights defenders Ibrahim Moussayih, Hassana Abba, and Mahfoud Bechri.
The session was moderated by Tone Sørfonn Moe, with opening remarks by Priyal Sepaha. It concluded with remarks by Tsholofelo Tsheole, Deputy Permanent Representative of South Africa to the UN in Geneva, and Sahrawi human rights defender El Ghalia Djimi. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
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