Geneva (Switzerland), July 15, 2026 (SPS) – The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) warned of the continued deterioration of the health of Sahrawi human rights defender Naâma Asfari, who has been on an open-ended hunger strike since June 8, inside Kenitra Prison in Morocco.
The organization called on the Moroccan authorities to take urgent action to protect his life and implement the recommendations of United Nations human rights mechanisms concerning his case.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the organization said that Asfari, who has described his hunger strike as the “Battle for Dignity,” is demanding the implementation of resolutions and recommendations issued by UN human rights mechanisms regarding his case and those of the Gdeim Izik group of prisoners, which have remained unimplemented despite the passage of years since they were issued.
The organization stressed that the continuation of the hunger strike raises serious concerns about Asfari's safety, calling on the Moroccan authorities to take urgent measures to ensure his physical safety and engage seriously in implementing the resolutions of the UN Committee against Torture and the the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
The statement noted that several UN mechanisms have, over the past years, concluded that serious violations of international law occurred in the cases of the Gdeim Izik prisoners. The UN Committee against Torture found that Morocco had violated the Convention against Torture in the case of Asfari and his fellow prisoners, stressing that the court convictions were based on confessions extracted under torture or coercion, in the absence of independent and effective investigations into torture.
The organization also recalled that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded, in its Opinion No. 23/2023, that the detention of the Gdeim Izik prisoners constituted arbitrary detention and called for their release and the provision of effective remedies in accordance with international law.
Despite these UN resolutions and opinions, the organization stressed that the Moroccan authorities have yet to implement the recommendations issued by the UN human rights system, reiterating its call for respect for Morocco's international human rights obligations.
It should be noted that the case of Naâma Asfari was included four times in the United Nations Secretary-General's annual report, during the period from 2018 to 2022.
