Boujdour (refugee camps), March 11, 2015 (SPS) - The Secretary General of the Saharawi National Union of Women, Ms. Fatma El-Mehdi, on Monday called on the UN Women National Committee Canada to boycott Crans Montan forum, which is set to be held in the occupied city of Dajla from 12 to 14 March 2015.
“I would like to kindly request you to abstain from taking part in this forum in the occupied city of Dajla, which will only complicate the situation on the ground and fuel more tension in the region,” said Fatma El-MEHDI, in her letter to the President of the UN Women National Committee Canada, Ms. Almas Jiwani.
She also added that “growing list of nations, regional organizations and non-governmental organizations from around the world, including Switzerland, the UK, and the European Union (EU), among others, have announced that they would not attend the forum because the holding of such conference in the territory of Western Sahara violate the relevant principles of international law applicable to Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing Territory.”
Following full text of the letter:
“To Ms Almas Jiwani
President of UN Women National Committee Canada
Dear Ms. Jiwani,
Bir Lehlou, 9 March 2015
It has come to our knowledge that you will speak at the forum that will be organised by the Swiss organisation, the Crans Montana Forum, in Dajla (Dakhla) in the southern part of Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation on 12-14 March 2015.1
As you are aware, Western Sahara is still on the agenda of the United Nations as a Non-Self-Governing Territory pending decolonisation. It has never been part of Morocco that continues to occupy illegally large parts of the Territory since 31 October 1975. In its historic advisory opinion on Western Sahara, issued on 16 October 1975, the International Court of Justice clearly established that there never existed any tie of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and Morocco or Mauritania. In 2002, the UN Under-Secretary for legal Affairs, Mr Hans Corell, issued an advisory opinion at the request of the UN Security Council in which he reaffirmed unequivocally that Morocco does not exercise any sovereignty or administering power over Western Sahara.
The United Nations, the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) and the international community as a whole have never approved Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara or recognised the legality of its forceful annexation of the Territory. Furthermore, consistent with its doctrine of not recognising as legal any territorial acquisition resulting from the use of force, the UN General Assembly has clearly described Morocco’s presence in Western Sahara as an act of occupation by force (res. 34/37 of 21 November 1979 and res. 35/19 of 11 November 1980). As an occupying power, Morocco thus has no right whatsoever to deal with third parties concerning the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Western Sahara.
Together with its obstructionist attitude towards the UN-led peace process in Western Sahara, Morocco continues to violate systematically human rights and international humanitarian law in the Sahrawi territories under its illegal occupation. The human rights violations involve the disappearance of Sahrawi human rights activists, torture of prisoners of conscience, arbitrary detention, police brutality, intimidation and extrajudicial executions, as was the case of the Sahrawi political prisoner, Hassana El- Wali, who was killed in the occupied city of Dajla in September 2014. All these human rights violations have been documented and made public by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Robert F. Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), among others.
Currently the entire occupied-Western Sahara is put under a military siege and a total media blackout, whilst Morocco continues to ban international observers and media from entering the Territory. Moreover, Morocco persists in plundering illegally the natural resources of the occupied Territory including fisheries, phosphates and other minerals often in complicity with foreign entities and in blatant violation of the permanent sovereignty of the Sahrawi people over their natural resources.
In view of the above-mentioned facts, the decision taken by Crans Montana to hold its 2015 annual session in the occupied city of Dajla is thus contrary to the rights and interests of the Sahrawi people and to the relevant principles of international law applicable to Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing Territory. It will also be tantamount to rewarding Morocco for its unabated violation of the basic human rights of the Sahrawi people including their inalienable right to self-determination.
The Crans Montana Forum claims that choosing the occupied city of Dajla as a venue for its forthcoming session is a “signal of the strong commitment of the organisation to peace and global dialogue”. However, playing into the hands of Morocco’s colonialist policy will only encourage and embolden Morocco to persist in its illegal occupation and forcible annexation of the Territory, thus undermining the UN-led efforts aiming at achieving a speedy, peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict in Western Sahara.
The Crans Montana Forum also claims that “it has been the first organisation to consider Africa’s major concerns and to foster its hopes and ambitions”. It is paradoxical that the announced Forum, which is supposed to address some of Africa’s major concerns, will be held in the last colony in Africa under the patronage of the occupying power. This fact casts doubt on the appropriateness and impartiality of such an initiative.
For these reasons, the Government of the Sahrawi Republic has officially expressed to the Crans Montana Forum its frustration and deep concern about the planned meeting, which is an unprecedented and provocative move that may have adverse consequences on the current developments of the question of Western Sahara.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), proclaimed by the Sahrawi people under the leadership of the Frente POLISARIO on 27 February 1976, is a founding Member State of the African Union (AU), which succeeded the OAU in 2002. The SADR is a fully-fledged State that exercises its full sovereignty over the Sahrawi liberated territories; it has been recognised by over 80 countries worldwide. Meanwhile, Morocco remains the only African country that is not member of the African Union because it continues to occupy by force parts of the Sahrawi Republic in violation of the AU Constitutive Act and the principle of the intangibility of borders existing on the achievement of national independence.
Both the AU and its predecessor have strongly supported and championed the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence and have consistently called for the speedy and unconditional decolonisation of Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa. Deeply concerned about the Crans Montana’s decision to hold its forthcoming Forum in the occupied Western Sahara, the Heads of States and Governments of the African Union, meeting at the 24th ordinary session of the AU Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 30 to 31 January 2015, unanimously adopted an important declaration on the issue.
In the declaration, the AU Assembly considered that the organisation of any international conference in the current circumstances in Western Sahara is in contradiction with the efforts made by the international community to resolve the conflict, and can only create an atmosphere of confrontation in the territory. It urged Crans Montana and all other organisers to cancel the meeting planned in the occupied city of Dajla (Western Sahara) as it is a grave violation of the international law. It further called upon the AU Member States, African civil society and all organisations not to participate in this Forum.
A growing list of nations, regional organisations and non-governmental organisations from around the world, including Switzerland, the UK, and the European Union (EU), among others, have announced that they would not attend the forum for the obvious legal and political implications that it may have on the developments of the question of Western Sahara.
Since its occupation of Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco has persisted its efforts to involve Governments, representatives of the public and private sector and civil society organisations from around the world in acts intended only to legitimise its illegal occupation of our country. These acts must be strongly condemned and boycotted, because they violate the relevant principles of international law applicable to Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing Territory.
In view of the foregoing, given your strong commitment to the cause of peace and gender equality around the world, I would like to kindly request you to abstain from taking part in this forum in the occupied city of Dajla, which will only complicate the situation on the ground and fuel more tension in the region.
It is clearly not in the interest of any respected individual or organisation believing in the values of justice and human rights to be associated with an illegal and brutal occupation that persists in violating fundamental human rights and denying an entire people their internationally recognised and inalienable right to self-determination and freedom.
Please accept, Madame, my highest regards and best wishes.
Ms. Fatma Mehdi,
Secretary-General of the National Union of Sahrawi Women.” (SPS)
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