New York, April 11, 2014 (SPS) - Amnesty International (AI) asked Friday the UN Security Council to expand the mandate of its peacekeeping force in Western Sahara, MINURSO, to include sustained human rights monitoring, noting that since MINURSO mandate was renewed last year the Moroccan authorities have continued to place restrictions on freedom of expression, peaceful protests and civil society in the occupied part of Western Sahara.
“Extending the peacekeeping force’s mandate to include human rights would shed much-needed light on violations and abuses that would otherwise go unreported and provide an independent and impartial account on disputed allegations of human rights violations,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, in New York.
Shetty noted that since MINURSO mandate was renewed last year, the Moroccan authorities have continued to stifle dissent, placing restrictions on freedom of expression, peaceful protests and civil society, cases of which were documented by Amnesty International.
She also said that Saharawi human rights defenders and activists face numerous restrictions on their work, including harassment and relentless surveillance by security forces, while authorities continue to obstruct the registration of Saharawi human rights associations.
If Morocco wishes to prove it is serious about respecting its international obligations, said the ONG, it must end the harassment or intimidation of activists and stop blocking independent human rights monitoring.
Amnesty International went on saying that an impartial and sustained monitoring by MINURSO could be crucial in probing the deaths of 11 Sahrawis extrajudicially executed by Moroccan armed forces in 1976, whose remains were discovered and exhumed last year by an independent forensic team.
“MINURSO could play a valuable role in preserving forensic evidence and paving the way for independent and impartial investigations into incidents such as enforced disappearances,” added Salil Shetty. (SPS)
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