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Posted 2010/4/29

Dublin: Front Line calls on Security Council to extend remit of MINURSO in Western Sahara to monitor human rights including the protection of human rights defenders

In the context of the meeting today, 29 April 2010, of the UN Security Council to review the mandate for MINURSO in Western Sahara, Front Line, the International Foundation for the protection of Human rights defenders, has sent a letter to the to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and to the permanent missions of all UN Security council members, calling for extending the remit of MINURSO to include the monitoring of human rights including the protection of human rights defenders.

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In the letter, Mary Lawlor, the director of Front Line based in Dublin, stressed on the need for strengthening protection for human rights defenders in Western Sahara due to deep political and security related tensions affecting all aspects of life including the work of human rights defenders.

The letter stated that the restrictions on the work of human rights defenders in Western Sahara remain very high. Many prominent Saharawi human rights defenders are subjected to arbitrary

detention and unfair trials while others are prevented from free movement and travel living under constant fear of arbitrary arrest and subjected to harassment.

In regard to the right to freedom of association, the international organization said thet most of Western Sahara’s human rights groups are denied legal registration. They are considered by the authorities as supporters of self-determination or “separatists”. As for the right to freedom of assembly, especially since the so-called “2005 independence uprising”, all kinds of peaceful protests and gatherings in Western Sahara are considered as illegal and dispersed by force. Participants, including human rights defenders, were reportedly beaten on the spot and/or arrested or otherwise intimidated.

Front Line concluded its letter by calling for the monitoring of human rights to become part of MINURSO’s mandate with a specific focus on the protection of human rights defenders, “so that the United Nations can fulfill its obligations in promotion of human rights and resolving the conflict over Western Sahara”