New York, Oct 22, 2012 (SPS) – the Spanish Oscar winner Javier Bardem and President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Kerry Kennedy have launched online petition calling on the President of the United States to lead efforts to add a human rights mandate to the UN Peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara.
The petition emphasized that United States must take action against the human rights violations facing the Sahrawi people living in occupied Western Sahara.
The petition underlined that United States must demonstrate leadership in addressing the human rights emergency in Western Sahara.
It recalled that "four decades after the cease-fire, the Sahrawi people suffer torture, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, and other human rights violations at the hands of the Moroccan government. And more than 100,000 refugees are left living in temporary camps outside Tindouf, Algeria, separated from their families and afraid to return home."
“As these abuses continue, the United Nations Peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, does not have a human rights mandate to investigate and report on these ongoing violations”, says the petition.
“I urge you to call for a human rights mandate for MINURSO and take a stand for human rights” the petition concluded. (SPS)
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