Stockholm, 31 January 2022 (SPS) - Swedish parliamentarian Lotta Johnsson Fornave questioned the Swedish Foreign Minister on the grave human rights situation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara in light of the worsening Moroccan violations on activists and journalists.
A member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense in Parliament, Ms. Johnsson questioned whether the foreign minister would summon the Moroccan ambassador to Sweden to protest the violations against Sultana Khaya and other Sahrawi civilians, activists and journalists.
She also asked whether the Minister of Foreign Affairs intends to raise Moroccan human rights violations in occupied Western Sahara with the UN, the EU and in bilateral talks with influential countries in the region, such as Spain and France.
Ms. Johnsson noted, in this regard, that the situation in the occupied territories was worrying, reporting 160 violations of civil rights, political rights, women's rights and the 4th Geneva Convention, reported since the violation by Morocco on November 13, 2020 of the ceasefire agreement with the Polisario Front.
She also noted that this situation may persist with ban on the entry to the territory of journalists and human rights organizations, in addition to the lack of a human rights monitoring mechanism for MINURSO.
The Swedish parliamentarian mentioned, in this context, the case of Sultana Khaya under house arrest and victim with her family of several violations of human rights.
Finally, Ms. Johnsson asked the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs if she would raise the issue of expanding the prerogatives of MINURSO to include human rights in the occupied territories.
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