Akureyri (Iceland), April 11, 2014 (SPS) - Nordic Youth Council (NYC) has urged the government of France to stop blocking that a UN mechanism of permanent monitoring of human rights must be introduced in the MINURSO mandate, calling on the Nordic countries to take a joint Nordic initiative in support of the enlargment of MINURSO mandate.
In a resolution of support to the extension of MINURSO mandate to include human rights monitoring, a copy of which reached SPS, NYC critisized that fact that France speaks loudly for human rights in other contexts, whereas it chooses to directly undermine human rights in occupied Western Sahara.
Recalling that the Nordic governments have been positive to the inclusion of monitoring of human rights in Western Sahara, the resolution noted that France blocked lasty year the proposal of allowing the UN mission in Western Sahara to observe and report on the human rights violations in the territory.
Given that the MINURSO does not have the mandate to report on human rights violations, as other UN missions do, the Council said that this fundamental flaw in its mandate must immediately be corrected.
NYC recalled that on 8 April on 8 April 2013 the UN Secretary-General presented his previous report on Western Sahara to the Security Council, in which he expressed concern over torture in Moroccan jails and life imprisonments against Saharawi activists, and urged for the surveillance of human rights in Western Sahara.
It, on other hand, went on saying that UN has issued more than 100 resolutions calling for the legitimate rights of the Saharawi people to self-determination to be respected. (SPS)
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