Washington (United States), April 18, 2014 (SPS) - Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged United Nations Security Council to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to incorporate human rights monitoring in Western Sahara, welcoming the suggestions the UN chief made in his latest report on the matter.
Ahead of a Security Council meeting to be held late April to discuss a draft resolution about Western Sahara, the HRW addressed Monday a letter to the 15 member countries of this body, in which it pointed out that MINURSO is "one of the rare UN peacekeeping operations that does not include a human rights monitoring component."
"We welcome the call made by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his report on the situation in Western Sahara released April 10, 2014, for sustained, independent and impartial monitoring of human rights, covering both the Territory and the camps," Human Rights watch said in the Letter.
"Existing rights-monitoring mechanisms fail to meet these criteria, which would be best satisfied by enlarging the mandate of MINURSO to include human rights monitoring of the violations committed." (SPS)
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