Geneva, May 27, 2021 (SPS) - The Geneva Support Group for the Protection and Promotion Human Rights in Western Sahara denounced Wednesday the continuation of the illegal military occupation of most of the Non-Self-Governing territory of Western Sahara by Morocco, calling on the United Nations to look into the situation of human rights in these territories.
In a statement released on the occasion of the celebration of the solidarity week with the peoples of Non-Self-Governing territories held from 25 to 31 May, the 285 member organizations of the Group called on the UN General Assembly to prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes, genocides, crimes against humanity and serious violations of Humanitarian International Law.
“The occupation policy implemented by the Moroccan Kingdom in the Non-Self-Governing territory of Western Sahara to ensure the control of the territory and exploit its natural resources is behind the systematic and serious violations of all the fundamental human rights and the norms of the Humanitarian International Law (including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949), benefitting from an inacceptable impunity,” said the Group of 285 non-governmental organizations.
“We notably note the violations of articles 31 and 32 (banning of coercion, corporal punishment, torture, degrading and inhuman treatment), of the article 33 ( banning of collective sanctions, intimidation, plundering and reprisals), of the article 49 ( banning of deportations, transfers and evacuations), of the article 53 (banning of the destruction of movable and immovable property belonging, individually or collectively, to private individuals) and of article 76 (on the treatment of detainees),” said the source.
“Some of these violations could constitute war crimes, crimes against the humanity and cultural genocide,” said the authors of the text.SPS
125/090/700