Geneva (Switzerland), February 13, 2024 (SPS) - The Polisario Front condemned, as the sole legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, the visit made by ambassadors from member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council to the occupied territories of Western Sahara at the invitation of the occupying power - the Kingdom of Morocco, calling on the members of the HRC to take the necessary measures to prevent Morocco’s plan to transform its mandate as President of the Council into a platform in the service of its colonial agenda in Western Sahara.
The representative of the Polisario Front in Switzerland and to the United Nations and international organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Oubi Boushraya Al-Bashir, said in a press release: "That Morocco, immediately after its election as President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, began using this international position to pass its own narrow agenda of promoting its colonial position in Western Sahara," pointing out that Morocco’s assumption of this position sparked strong and surprising reactions.
The Sahrawi diplomat explained in his press release that, at the beginning of this month, February 2024, Morocco invited 14 ambassadors accredited to the United Nations in Geneva to visit the occupied territory of Western Sahara. The visit and these ambassadors were exploited in a large-scale media propaganda operation by Morocco to mislead international public opinion and abuse the presidency of the Council to promote its (Morocco's) illegal military occupation of Western Sahara.
In this regard, the Sahrawi official stressed that this exploitation constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the United Nations Charter, which considers Western Sahara a non-autonomous territory occupied in the process of incomplete decolonization. It also contradicts the mandate of the President and the spirit of the Council set by the UN General Assembly’s resolution Founding the Council A/RES/60/251 (April 2006), which refers to the paramount importance of “the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples” and the urgent need “to ensure universality, objectivity and non-selectivity in the consideration of human rights issues, and to eliminate double standards and politicization.”
Ambassador Oubi Boushraya al-Bashir concluded his press release saying that Morocco's narrow exploitation of the presidency cannot correct its deteriorating image after the "Morocco Gate" and "Pegasus" scandals and the massacre committed against African immigrants in Melilla in June 2022, nor can it cover up the siege and systematic expulsion of international observers and the blatant human rights violations committed in Western Sahara, which are well documented by international organizations.
SPS