Washington, March 24, 2014 (SPS) - Sahrawi activist of human rights Aminatou Haidar presents Monday a lecture before the U.S. Congress Committee on Foreign Relations on the Moroccan violations of Human Rights in the Western Sahara in the presence of a number of the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as those interested in the Sahrawi issue from the Democratic and Republican parties.
The Sahrawi activist is invited by a number of organisations and personalities, particularly the Defense Forum Foundation, Committee of Friendship with the Saharawi people in the U.S. Congress and Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights.
The U.S. administration proposed last year to expand the prerogatives of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include monitoring and protecting human rights pending the decolonization and organization of a referendum on self-determination, it should be recalled.
Often called the “Sahrawi Gandhi,” Aminatou Haidar is the President of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA). She is one of Western Sahara’s most prominent human rights defenders.
Since Morocco’s invasion of Western Sahara in 1975, Ms. Haidar has always denounced Morocco’s gross human rights violations against the Saharawi people and advocated for the fulfillment of their right to self-determination.
In 2008, Aminatou Haidar received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for her courageous non-violent action in promoting the civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights of the people of Western Sahara, including the right to freedom of speech, freedom of association and to self-determination.
In 1987, for participating in a peaceful demonstration, Aminatouspent almost 4 years in a secret prison, without being charged with a crime and without a trial. There she was brutally tortured. Ms. Haidar was kept blindfolded the entire duration of her detention and has suffered from permanent health damage because of the torture.
Ms. Haidar continued her activism in defense of the fundamental rights of all Sahrawi people despite these hardships, and repeatedly suffered the consequences of speaking out against the Moroccan human rights violations.
On June 17, 2005, Ms. Haidar was brutally beaten and injured by the police during a demonstration in El Aaiun. She was arrested at the hospital after receiving 12 cranial stitches and treatment for 3 broken ribs.
She had served seven months in the notorious “Black Prison” of Morocco in the occupied city of El Aaiun, capital of Western Sahara. There she and 37 other Saharawi political detainees began a 32-day hunger strike to demand improved detention conditions, investigations into the allegations of torture, and the release of all political prisoners.
In the Fall of 2009, as Ms. Haidar returned from a visit to the U.S., the Moroccan government removed Ms. Haidar’s passport and expelled her from Western Sahara, in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that guarantees the right of every person to live in his/her homeland and to return to his/her country.
In response, Ms. Haidar went on a hunger strike that ultimately lasted for 32 days until Morocco allowed her to return to Western Sahara.
(SPS)
Often called the “Sahrawi Gandhi,” Aminatou Haidar is the President of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA). She is one of Western Sahara’s most prominent human rights defenders.
Since Morocco’s invasion of Western Sahara in 1975, Ms. Haidar has always denounced Morocco’s gross human rights violations against the Saharawi people and advocated for the fulfillment of their right to self-determination.
In 2008, Aminatou Haidar received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for her courageous non-violent action in promoting the civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights of the people of Western Sahara, including the right to freedom of speech, freedom of association and to self-determination.
In 1987, for participating in a peaceful demonstration, Aminatouspent almost 4 years in a secret prison, without being charged with a crime and without a trial. There she was brutally tortured. Ms. Haidar was kept blindfolded the entire duration of her detention and has suffered from permanent health damage because of the torture.
Ms. Haidar continued her activism in defense of the fundamental rights of all Sahrawi people despite these hardships, and repeatedly suffered the consequences of speaking out against the Moroccan human rights violations.
On June 17, 2005, Ms. Haidar was brutally beaten and injured by the police during a demonstration in El Aaiun. She was arrested at the hospital after receiving 12 cranial stitches and treatment for 3 broken ribs.
She had served seven months in the notorious “Black Prison” of Morocco in the occupied city of El Aaiun, capital of Western Sahara. There she and 37 other Saharawi political detainees began a 32-day hunger strike to demand improved detention conditions, investigations into the allegations of torture, and the release of all political prisoners.
In the Fall of 2009, as Ms. Haidar returned from a visit to the U.S., the Moroccan government removed Ms. Haidar’s passport and expelled her from Western Sahara, in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that guarantees the right of every person to live in his/her homeland and to return to his/her country.
In response, Ms. Haidar went on a hunger strike that ultimately lasted for 32 days until Morocco allowed her to return to Western Sahara.
(SPS)
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