GENEVA (Human Rights Council), September 6, 2026 (SPS)– Geneva will host, on September 8, a side event on the margins of the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, under the theme “Climate Justice and Human Rights in the Context of Foreign Occupation”. The event will take place from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Council premises, under the auspices of the Geneva Support Group for Western Sahara.
According to a concept note issued by the organizers, the seminar will examine the intersection of climate justice, human rights and international law in territories under foreign occupation, with particular focus on Western Sahara and the legal, environmental and human rights implications of natural resource exploitation and the implementation of energy and infrastructure projects.
It will also address the relationship between the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination and the principle of permanent sovereignty of peoples over their natural wealth and resources, as well as the need to ensure their meaningful participation in decisions concerning their land, resources and environmental protection.
The seminar will highlight the environmental and human rights consequences of economic activities in Western Sahara, including phosphate extraction, fishing and renewable energy projects. It will also examine criticism directed at certain renewable energy projects established in the territory, which researchers and civil society organizations argue contribute to supporting energy- and water-intensive extractive activities and linking energy-transition investments to an illegally occupied territory, rather than ensuring a just and inclusive transition that serves the interests of the Sahrawi people.
A number of experts and political and human rights figures will contribute to the event. Ambassador Geraldo Gonçalves Miguel Saranga, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mozambique and current President of the Geneva Support Group for Western Sahara, will deliver the opening remarks, while Ambassador Oubi Buchraia Bachir, Special Advisor to the President of the Sahrawi Republic and Head of the Group in charge of Natural Resources and Related Legal Affairs, will deliver the closing remarks.
The list of speakers includes Miguel Urbán Crespo, former Spanish Member of the European Parliament (2015–2024) and political activist known for his engagement with human rights, international justice and the Western Sahara issue; British expert Dr. Nick Brooks, a specialist in human-environment interactions and climate change adaptation; and Erik Hagen, a Norwegian board member of Western Sahara Resource Watch, who has followed foreign corporate involvement in the plunder of Western Sahara’s natural resources since 2002 and also serves as Director of the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara.
Dr. Andrea Maria Pelliconi, Lecturer in Human Rights Law at the University of Southampton and a researcher focusing on demographic engineering, forced displacement, settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide under international law, will also participate. The seminar will be moderated by South African environmental and human rights activist Ms. Catherine Constantinides.
The event provides an opportunity to highlight the legal and human rights dimensions of the exploitation of natural resources in Western Sahara and to reaffirm that any environmental policies or projects related to energy and natural resources in occupied territories must comply with international law and respect the rights of the Sahrawi people, mainly their right to self-determination and permanent sovereignty over their natural resources and territory.
It is worth recalling that the situation in Western Sahara will feature prominently throughout the 63rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which opened today, Monday, in Geneva and will continue until October 9, through a series of side-events and activities highlighting the ongoing human rights violations committed by the Moroccan occupation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
The human rights activities are focusing on the deteriorating human rights situation in Western Sahara, amid escalating targeting of Sahrawi human rights defenders through arbitrary detention, surveillance, harassment and intimidation, as well as physical and psychological abuse and sexual violence, while the Moroccan occupation authorities continue to impose severe restrictions on access to the territory by observers, journalists and UN mechanisms. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
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