Geneva, March 5, 2012 (SPS) - The UN Committee against Torture (CAT) has urged, in a report recently published in Geneva about the torture in Western Sahara, the Moroccan state “to take an urgent and concrete measures to put an end to the acts of violence and ill-treatment committed against the Saharawi prisoners and civilians.”
The report, which included the final remarks of the UN Committee on the last Moroccan periodic report submitted on November 2011 to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, recommended that Morocco take a policy that will lead to positive results in stopping the acts of torture and the flagrant violations perpetrated by Moroccan occupation forces on the Saharawi civilians.
It stressed that the procedures of maintenance the security as well as investigation and inquiry “must be applied with respect to the international law of human rights as well as to the judicial measures and fundamental guarantees in the state party.”
The Committee expressed deep concern on the circumstances surrounded the evacuation of Gdeim Izik camp, underlying that many people were killed and tens of others were arrested during the evacuation process in the absence of a fair and effective investigation in order to shed light on these events and to identify those responsible among the security forces.
It also indicated that according to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment “there is no exceptional circumstance, whatsoever, can justify the practice of torture in a territory ruled by the laws of a State Party.” (SPS)
090/089/TRA