Washington, April 15, 2012 (SPS) - Human Rights Watch has called on the Security Council to enlarge the functions of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include the monitoring of the Saharawi people’s human rights.
In a letter sent to Security Council 15 members, HRW recalled that MINURSO is “one of the few UN missions in charge of peace-keeping operations that have no power to monitor human rights.”
“I addition to this,” the letter added “U.N. Security Council expressed, in his report on Western Sahara issued last week, regret for the difficulties that hamper the MINURSO mission.”
“If the resolution 1979 that endorsed by the Security Council in April 2011 has hailed the measures taken by Morocco to establish the National Council for Human Rights and its commitment to ensure the benefit from all the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council, so these Moroccan initiatives are far away from ensuring a fair and regular follow-up to the current situation of human rights in Western Sahara,” asserted the letter.
The American NGO registered in the same regard that the National Council of Human Rights is an enterprise of Morocco “which the UN does not recognize its sovereignty over Western Sahara,” adding that these Moroccan initiatives “did not even allow to change the situation in terms of Saharawi people’s human rights.”
“Moroccan authorities continue to commit different forms of repression against the Saharawis who defend the right of self-determination and denounce human rights abuses,” stated HRW, stressing that guaranteeing a large-scale and regular monitoring of human rights “can only be realized by expanding the mandate of MINURSO through the integration of human rights monitoring or creation of a special rapporteur for Western Sahara.”
After HRW recalled that the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations “defines the respect for human rights as an essential element to achieve a lasting peace,” it confirmed “the time has come for the United Nations to integrate a regular UN mechanism for human rights monitoring in Western Sahara within MINURSO mandate, thus to comply with the other UN peace-keeping missions.” (SPS)
090/089/TRA