A joint parallel report between the Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights «CONASADH» and The Saharawi Instance against the Moroccan Occupation «ISACOM»

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL :  Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, 41^st session – Kingdom of Morocco

“Human Rights Violations Committed against Human Rights Defenders in the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Western Sahara occupied by the Kingdom of Morocco”

MARCH 2022

The Saharawi Instance against the Moroccan Occupation «ISACOM» was established in El Ayoun on 20 September 2020. ISACOM is composed of a General Assembly of 33 members and an Executive of seven members (three women and four men) with Aminatou Haidar as its president. Aminatou Haidar has received major international awards including the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the 2009 Civil Courage Price, the 2011 Rene Casin, and the 2019 Right Livelihood, among others. Almost all of ISACOM’s members have been subjected to enforced disappearances and/or arbitrary arrests in the past. ISACOM starts from the premise that Morocco is an occupying power in Western Sahara, as has been recognized under the norms of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law. ISACOM monitors and reports on the human rights situation in Western Sahara.

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The Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights «CONASADH» is an independent institution with legal personality and a mandate of four years. This Commission has been established based on Presidential Decree number 05/2014, dated 8 March 2014 and is composed of 33 members including activists and members of civil society in the occupied territories of Western Sahara; in refugee camps; in the liberated territories; representatives of the Saharawi parliament and the Consultative Council; representatives of the wilayas; and representatives of the diaspora. Some of the functions that the Commission is assigned to perform are: the observation and surveillance of the human rights situation in the Saharawi State; in the occupied territories and the South of Morocco; and the denunciation before regional and international human rights organizations of the violations committed within them. On 9 April 2016, CONASADH obtained the status of observer member in the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in accordance with Resolution No. 31 98 (XXIV).

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1. BACKGROUND

1. On 2 May 2017 the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) examined Morocco in its 27^th session. On 5 May 2017 the Working Group the report on Morocco which included 244 recommendations for the State under review. Morocco will be reviewed again in November 2022 in the 4^th UPR cycle. The following report provides information to the Working Group about the current status of implementation of a select number of recommendations from the previous cycle in what concerns Western Sahara and the situation of Saharawi human rights defenders and activists.

1. PRELIMINARY NOTE

• Morocco has been recognized as an occupying power of Western Sahara, whose legitimate representative is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río Oro (Polisario Front).[1] The presentation of this report to the United Nations within the framework of Morocco’s UPR does not imply any type of recognition by the organizations submitting it of the sovereignty of the State over the territory of Western Sahara. Likewise, the signatory associations urge international organizations not to recognize this illegal situation or to provide help or assistance to maintain said situation.

1. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST SAHARAWI HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS (Rec. 144.58, 144.61, 144.117, 144.120, 144.244)

Selection of recommendations to the State in the 3rd UPR Ensure procedures governing the registration of civil society organizations, including those advocating for the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination (Recs. 144.58, 144.61)Ensure the Constitution’s provisions on freedom of the press, freedom of opinion and expression and freedom of assembly and association are respected, including for people who want to express their views on the situation of and in Western Sahara (Rec. 144.117) Create and maintain […] a safe and enabling environment for civil society and human rights defenders, including in and in relation to Western Sahara […] remove limitations on freedom of expression, review the system for registration of associations […] (Rec. 144.120, 144.121) Develop and implement independent and credible measures to ensure full respect for human rights in Western Sahara, including the freedom of expression and assembly (Rec. 144.244)

The right to form associations and NGOs (Art. 22 ICCPR)

• Morocco has authorized the operation of one single Saharawi organization -the Saharawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations committed by the Moroccan State (ASVDH). Despite its official status as a human rights Organization, the ASVDH, its members and those who collaborate with them continue being subjected to restrictions, house arrest and deprived of the right to work in a safe environment.

• In December 2017, three members of the ASVDH, including human rights defender El Ghalia Djimi, had a meeting with a delegation of Japanese professors in the ASVDH’s headquarters in El Aaiun. During the meeting, a group of plainclothes pólice officers interrupted them and forced the guests to leave, questioning them about their work with the ASVDH and transferring them in a police car to the exit of El Aaiun.[2] When requesting an explanation for their detention, the agents replied that they were participating in political activities pro-Polisario Front which they had not declared upon their arrival and therefore were considered “persona non grata.”

• On 2 January 2020, in the headquarters of the ASVDH in El Aaiun, the Moroccan police did not allow the function in honor of human rights defender Aminatou Haidar after her return from Stockholm where she received the “Alternative Nobel” international award granted by the Rights Livelihood foundation in December 2019. Plainclothes Moroccan police officers surrounded the headquarters, blocked its door, prevented guests from entering and forced those present to leave.[3]

• On 20 September 2020 in El Aaiun, a group of human rights defenders established the Saharawi Instance Against the Moroccan Occupation «ISACOM», with the aim of defending the legitimate rights of the Saharawi people, mainly the right to self-determination and to advocate for the release of Saharawi political prisoners held in Moroccan jails. On 29 September 2020, the Moroccan Attorney General announced that he would initiate an investigation against all members of ISACOM for the crime of «damaging the territorial integrity» -the penalty of which is imprisonment from six months to two years and up to five years according to the Moroccan Penal Code[4]– and he threatened to imprison them.[5]  

• An hour after the Attorney General’s announcement, official Moroccan police vehicles and other Moroccan secret service cars surrounded the houses of the following ISACOM members: Aminatou Haidar, El Ghalia Djimi, Lahcen Dalil, Mina Baali and Fatma Ayach. Dozens of police officers both plainclothes and in uniform, blocked the doors, preventing ISACOM members from receiving visits, including from their families. This police siege lasted three months continuously. Throughout this period, ISACOM President Aminatou Haidar and Executive Member El Ghalia Djimi were followed at all times by two cars with the following license plates: Dacia Logan 21603/1/68 and Dacia Logan 21604/1/68.[6]

• Currently, ISACOM members cannot work openly or regularly and remain under the control and surveillance of the Moroccan police, which imposes many obstacles on them that severely limit their work.[7] This situation persists despite the urgent call of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Ms. Mary Lower in July 2021 against the systematic and relentless targeting and retaliation against human rights defenders for exercising their rights to freedom of association and expression in Western Sahara.[8]

• On 10 November 2021 in El Aaiun, the Moroccan police prevented ISACOM members from traveling to Bujador in a caravan in solidarity with Saultana Khayya and her family. Moroccan police officer Ahmed Kayya ordered the ban and they were forced to return to their homes. [9] The situations described are contrary to Article 22 of the ICCPR, which protects the right of association.

The Right of Peaceful Assembly (Art. 21 ICCPR)

1. The Moroccan State continues to prevent Saharawi activists from meeting or demonstrating freely, besieging the streets and preventing access at the time designated for the peaceful demonstrations. If the demonstrations are able to take place, the activists are subjected to violent repression by the Moroccan police and paramilitaries.

1. In April 2018, the League for the Protection of Saharawi Prisoners in Moroccan Prisons (LPPS) called for a demonstration in El Aaiun to demand the release of political prisoners, some of whom had been on a 27-day hunger strike. Defender Faddah Ahmed Aghlamenhoum, a member of the ASVDH, was in charge of documenting the demonstration and was wearing a jacket with the association’s logo. Moroccan plainclothes police approached her, forcibly taking her camera, beating her, insulting her and forbidding her to finish her work. To date, her work equipment has not been returned and the complaints filed by the defender with the authorities have been ignored.

1. In June 2018, during the visit to El Aaiun of the UN envoy for Western Sahara, Horst Koehler, the population mobilized to demonstrate in favor of its independence. Since the morning, the Moroccan authorities imposed a police blockade and the houses of several activists were surrounded, as was the case of Hassan Duihi and Ali Saadouni. Plainclothes police officers hindered the arrival of the buses that were transporting the Saharawis to the place where the demonstration was planned. The demonstrators who managed to arrive carried SADR flags and demanded their right to self-determination and the protection of the United Nations.[10] These demonstrations were repressed by the police, resulting in many injuries, including several women activists, such as Mina Baali, Salka Leili, Laila Lili, Salha Boutanguiza, Mbarka Alina Baali, Batoul Laghrid, among others.

1. On 10 January 2020, the Moroccan authorities prevented a meeting of activists to take place in the house of Dah Mustapha. The police blocked the door of the house and the street where it is located, forcefully preventing the entrance of the participants. Several of them were beaten, mistreated, and insulted, as is the case of defenders Aminatou Haidar, Mohamed Dadach, Hamoud Lili, Khalili Damber, Salka Leili, among others.[11]

1. On 8 May 2021, in El Aaiun, the Moroccan police surrounded the house of Mina Baali -a member of ISACOM- preventing a meeting of Saharawi women activists that was to take place there. The next day Mina Baali, on behalf of ISACOM, organized a peaceful act on the roof of her house, raising SADR flags. Shortly after beginning, a dozen Moroccan police officers arrived and violently stormed her house, beating her, insulting her, breaking her furniture, confiscating her cameras, her mobile phone, her sister Mbarka Alina Baali’s phone, the camera of the SADR TV correspondent Salha Boutanguiza and the computer of her 13-year-old son Saad. Furthermore, they removed the electric meter and left her without power for six days. Mina Baali spent 20 days under house arrest. That same night, Mr. Lahcen Dalil (executive member of ISACOM) managed to visit her, but within a few minutes of his arrival, several plainclothes and masked police officers broke into the house, beat Mr. Dalil and they took him out by force, transferring him to the outskirts of the city where he was subjected to acts of torture.[12]

1. On 5 December 2021 in El Aaiun, a group of women members of ISACOM organized a peaceful demonstration to protest against the continuous repression and violent nightly assaults by the Moroccan police against the defender and member of ISACOM, Saultana Khayya and her family. Within minutes, a dozen uniformed Moroccan police officers and a group of paramilitaries surrounded the protesters, forcefully pushing them to the ground, insulting them and violently beating them. Among the victims of this repression were the president of ISACOM Aminatou Haidar, as well as Mina Baali, Mbarka Alina Baali and El Ghalia Djimi (executive members of ISACOM), and Salha Boutanguiza (SADR TV correspondent).).[13] The situations described are contrary to Article 21 of the ICCPR which protects the right to assemble or demonstrate peacefully.

The right to freedom of expression (Art. 19(2) ICCPR)

1. One of the ways in which the Moroccan State continues to violate the right to freedom of expression is through the systematic siege imposed on the houses of activists with the aim of intimidating them and preventing them from exercising their rights. These tactics severely restrict their freedom of movement and impact their physical and psychological integrity and have been implemented in retaliation for their peaceful activities in favor of human rights and for their membership in human rights organizations, especially ISACOM.

1. The homes of the families of ISACOM members and other defenders have been sieged in retaliation for their public stances in support of self-determination and independence for Western Sahara.[14] The police surrounded the homes of these defenders for 24 hours after which officers rotated sites, beginning at 8 a.m. and until midnight. This went on for months. Currently, when the authorities receive information about a meeting, they siege the houses of the defenders again to prevent them from taking place. Moreover, the houses of these defenders have been left without electricity for several days after the Moroccan police removed their electricity meters, as is the case of Hassan Duihi, Saleh Zaigame and the emblematic case of the family of Saultana Khayya who are still without electricity since April 2021.

1. The siege has intensified especially after the violent Moroccan assault against civilian Saharawi demonstrators in the Gargarat strip on 13 November 2020, a violation of the ceasefire by Morocco. Since 19 November 2020, the home of activist and ISACOM member Saultana Khayya and her family has been under siege. Family of any degree of kinship has been denied access. The harassment, threats, severe physical and psychological violence on multiple occasions and sexual violence -including rape– perpetrated against Saultana Khayya, her sister Al Waara Khaya and her mother, Matou, 84, remain unpunished to date.[15]

1. On 16 November 2020, Hayat Eddya, a 12-year-old student, went to school wearing an apron with a Saharawi flag design on it. Seeing her garment, the Moroccan teacher informed the administration, which in turn called both the police and Hayat’s mother. When the police arrived, they questioned Hayat, took a photo of her and confiscated her mobile phone. Afterwards, they took her in a police vehicle to the Moroccan security headquarters where they continued to interrogate her without the presence of her mother or any legal representative. During the interrogation they beat her, pulled her hair and put her in a filthy cell full of urine where they threatened to sexually abuse her. They also forced her to kiss a photo of King Mohamed, apologize to him and sing the Moroccan anthem. When Hayat replied that she did not know it, they began insulting her again and pulling her hair until the minor was so upset that she was allowed to wash up and return home to her mother.[16]

• Another strategy used by the Moroccan government to limit the right to freedom of expression of the Saharawi defenders and activists is the granting of National Promotion Cards (Al-Kartiyas). This card gives access to certain people classified as vulnerable to social benefits and a basic income. The high unemployment rates in Western Sahara have caused a large part of the population in the occupied areas to depend on these benefits. The authorities commonly freeze the salaries awarded through these cards to human rights defenders and activists who openly speak out in favor of self-determination. They rarely reinstate them and if they do, it is only after the person agrees not to get involved in any kind of political activity. These have been the cases of the activists and members of ISACOM Maalouma Baih, El-Hocine Nassiri, Mahfouda Lefkir, Nguia Radi, Soukaina El Idrissi, Nguia Boukhers, Lemhaba Cheikhi, Gabbal Jaouda, Ghlaijilha El Ouali, among others.[17] The situations described are contrary to article 19 of the ICCPR which protects the right to freedom of expression.

Obligation to guarantee the protection of all defenders against all violence, threat, reprisals and arbitrary actions (Arts. 7, 9 ICCPR Art. 12 Declaration on Human Rights Defenders)

• The Moroccan authorities continue to violate their international obligations regarding the protection of defenders in the exercise of their fight for the self-determination of the Saharawi people. One of the strategies used by the Moroccan State is to instigate hatred, violence and discrimination against the Saharawi people through campaigns in visual, sound and digital media. The media convey to the Moroccan people that the activists are «separatists», «traitors» and «enemies of the interests of the State». This normalizes hate speech against the Saharawi population among the Moroccan citizens.

• Some of the media used by the government are the Sahrawikileaks website, affiliated with Moroccan intelligence, the Moroccan electronic newspaper Yabilidi, and the Hespress website, all associated with the Moroccan government.[18] In 2018, defender El Ghalia Djimi went to Geneva to participate in a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The government began a smear campaign against her, calling her a traitor, an opportunist and accusing her of receiving money and favors in exchange for her participation and advocacy for the cause of Western Sahara. This campaign severely affected her reputation and put her personal integrity in danger due to the great resentment that these accusations generated against her within the civil society.

• In September 2020, the date of the creation of ISACOM, the government launched a smear campaign that lasted almost two months against both the organization and its founding members, especially its president, defender Aminatou Haidar, laureate of several international awards.[19] The official Moroccan media and the newspapers and websites associated with the Moroccan government, as well as various Moroccan civil society organizations and social networks, shared messages inciting violence against ISACOM and especially against Aminatou Haidar.[20] Haidar has suffered for many years from the consequences of smear, discrimination and hate campaigns against her. Aminatou is mentioned in the 2020 UN Secretary General’s report on reprisals against defenders. [21] Some of the other victims of these campaigns have been influential figures in the human rights’ sphere such as Sultana Khaya, El Ghalia Djimi, Mina Aba Ali, Brahim Dihani, Mohamed El Moutaoikil, Ahmed Naceri, Hassana Abba, Mohammad Dadach, Mustapha Dah, among others.[22] The examples described are contrary to the obligation to guarantee the protection of defenders against all violence, threats, reprisals and arbitrary actions.

      Arbitrary arrest and disproportionate sentences (Art. 9 ICCPR)

• The Moroccan authorities arbitrarily arrest Saharawi defenders in the exercise of their rights, accusing them of committing crimes subject to serious penalties.[23] These charges are used to dissuade defenders from documenting the violations committed by Moroccan security agents against protesters on public roads. On 12 April 2018, the informative activist Naziha Khaled was arrested in El Aaiun for having broadcast live from her Facebook page what took place during a peaceful demonstration on public roads.[24] On the same date, defender Brahim Dihani was arrested for the second time for recording during a peaceful sit-in on public roads and was brought before the court and accused of filming Moroccan police officers.[25] Dihani was eventually acquitted of the charges against him and Naziha was sentenced to a suspended sentence.

• On 10 November 2020, the Saharawi activists Ali Saadouni and Nurdin Al-Argubi were kidnapped in El Aaiun while participating in a peaceful sit-in with a group of Saharawi civilians. Moroccan plainclothes police officers Ali Buifri and Youness Fadel, both known for their involvement in human rights violations, forced the activists inside police vehicles and subjected them to physical abuse -including biting- and psychological abuse and taken separately to the area of Al-Hagunia where they continued abusing them and even threatened to rape them if they pursued their demands for freedom and independence.[26]

• This was also the case of Salah Eddine Bassir, a journalist for RASD TV,[27] arrested on 8 June 2015 and sentenced to 4 years in prison for his participation and media coverage of the demonstration for the self-determination of the Saharawi people in Smara, Western Sahara. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that his deprivation of liberty was arbitrary.[28] Ali Saadouni, a Saharawi human rights defender and activist, was arrested on 11 April 2019, for his alleged participation the previous day in a demonstration organized by the group «Coordination of those who reject Moroccan nationality», of which he is a founding member. A few days later, he was sentenced to seven months in prison and a fine of 5,000 dirhams – which is the maximum fine established by the court of El Aaiun for the alleged crime of drug possession and violence against a police agent.[29] The Working Group also determined that his detention was arbitrary.[30]

• Saharawi defenders are subject not only to arbitrary arrests and unfair trials, but also to excessive prison sentences. Such was the case of Jatri Dadda who was arrested in the city of Asmara in December 2019 by the Moroccan police who informed him that there was a search warrant against him. In March 2020, he was sentenced by the Court of First Instance in El Aaiun for «insulting public officials and use of violence» as well as for setting fire to a police car and hence sentenced to 20 years in prison, which is the maximum sentence for this alleged crime.[31] His Spanish lawyer was expelled from El Aaiun when she was preparing to attend the trial as an observer.[32]

• On 9 December 2020, the El Aaiun court handed down sentences of 10 months in prison against the youths Nasrallah El Gareh, Ahmed Habaddi Al Gargar and Ali Ouadan for their participation in peaceful demonstrations in El Aaiun in the context of the violation of the ceasefire by Morocco and the return to armed struggle. The charges filed against them were «throwing stones at police officers and blocking the main street.» [33]

• On 30 November 2021, criminal court of Guelmim published the sentence of the appeal trial followed against the young Saharawi activists, Jamal Ahrouch and Hamza Bouhriga, sentencing them respectively to prison terms of 15 months and 7 months for their participation in demonstrations that called for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination.[34]

• On 26 May 2021, plainclothes Moroccan police arrested the Saharawi activist and blogger Essabi Yahdih, president of Agargarat Media. The arrest took place in Al-Marsa, at the gas station where Yahdih worked. The officers beat him outside the station before taking him to the police station where he was accused of «undermining the integrity of the Moroccan state by photographing military installations and security posts without the consent of public authorities.» On 29 July 2021 the court of Dakhla issued a preliminary ruling sentencing Yahdih to 1 year in prison and a fine of 10,000 Dirhams. On 23 October 2021 the Dakhla Court of Appeal increased his sentence to 2 years in prison – the maximum sentence established for this crime. He is currently serving this sentence in the prison of Smara.[35] His arrest presumably responds to Yahdih’s political convictions and his work in media, highlighting the serious human rights violations committed daily in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.[36]

• On 11 November 2021 at 7:00 p.m. in El Aaiun, the Moroccan police arrested Saharawi activist El Ouali Lahmad, president of the “Nushatta Foundation”, in a Prado 4×4 car without license plates. Several police officers, including Younes Fadel, known for his involvement in human rights violations, tied his hands, blindfolded him, and began questioning him in the car, where they beat him violently and threatened to rape him. They then took him to the Moroccan security center where they continued to torture him. The Moroccan authorities accused him of encouraging young people to take to the streets to support the Algerian national team after the football match against the Moroccan team in the Arab Cup. After 8 hours, El Ouali Lahmad was released in a very deteriorated physical state with signs of torture all over his body.[37] It can be deduced that the reason behind his arrest was his work in media and the way he put the situation of the Saharawi population in the occupied territories in the spotlight.

Obligation to ensure that everyone enjoys their social, economic and political rights and freedoms

• The Moroccan State is also failing to comply with its obligation to guarantee that every person enjoys all social, economic, political and other rights and freedoms by arbitrarily dismissing human rights activists from their jobs in the public administration because of their political views.[38] Mina Baali, who was a victim of enforced disappeared in the nineties, was a beneficiary of the social reinsertion program, a reparation granted by the Equity and Reconciliation Instance (IER) in 2013. Through this program, she received an administrative position in the Ministry of Interior. Due to her political activism, her salary was frozen on multiple occasions and her leave days were not granted.[39] Finally, on 15 October 2019, the administration informed her that she would be transferred to another office far from her home, which would complicate her participation in demonstrations in favor of the right to self-determination. In that same year, on 19 November she was informed of her permanent dismissal from her job.

• Students who are children of Saharawi activists are also not immune to the arbitrary decisions of the Moroccan administration, who hinder access to university scholarships and public transport vouchers -benefits granted to non-opposition members. This represents a form of economic pressure to hinder the activity of the Saharawi defenders and at the same time obstruct the educational path of their children. Such is the case of the children of human rights activist El Ghalia Djimi -Mohammad Dah and Nassra Dah; of the student Khalid Duihi, son of the activist Hassan Duihi; of the doctoral student Mohamed Hali; the students Mohamed Zaighame, Monia Chein, among other activist children of human rights defenders.[40]

• For reasons presumably related to his views in favor of the independence of Western Sahara, the Bar Association of Agadir, Morocco refused to register the Saharawi human rights defender Mohamed Hali in the list of lawyers in training, despite having obtained a certificate to practice the profession of lawyer.

The right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence (Art. 12 ICCPR)

• On 18 January 2019, the Moroccan police prohibited a group of 17 Saharawi human rights defenders from traveling from El Aaiun to other cities in Western Sahara and southern Morocco.[41] The delegation had just visited the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria and the liberated territories of Western Sahara and had schedule a series of trips to share the results of their visit, especially their experience as witnesses to the destruction of thousands of anti-personnel mines by the army of the POLISARIO Front, in compliance to the Saharawi commitment to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS).

• The three-car convoy was heading to the city of Smara but the exit from El Aaiun was blocked by barricades and by a large Moroccan police force [42] who prohibited them from continuing their journey, without giving them any explanations for this decision. Despite the delegation’s peaceful protest, the group was subjected to unjustified abuses such as the attempted seizure and towing of the car of defender Aminatou Haidar (delegation spokesperson), physical attacks on activists Mina Baali and Saultana Khayya[43] and the confiscation of documents from activist Ali Boujlal’s car as well defender Ahmed Naceri’s mobile phone. The delegation changed their destination to the city of Boujdour, but the Moroccan authorities still prevented them from continuing their journey and they were forced to return to El Aaiun.

• On 19 January, the delegation tried to head to the south of Morocco, but were deprived, once again by the Moroccan authorities of their right to move. The delegation then headed to the MINURSO headquarters where Aminatou Haidar was preparing to inform the Head of mission about the repression perpetrated but she was intercepted by Moroccan agents who attacked her and forcibly prevented her access in front of the MINURSO officials.

• Another of the intimidation strategies used by the Moroccan authorities to silence Saharawi human rights defenders is forcing them to move far from their places of residence, separating them from their families, cutting ties with their communities and negatively impacting their livelihoods.

• In May 2019, the human rights defender, former political prisoner of the Gdeim Izik group and member of the ISACOM executive, Sidi Abderrahman Zayou, was transferred from El Aaiun to the city of Qalaat Sraghna, Morocco, approximately 1,000 km from El Aaiun. After spending two years arbitrarily detained by the Moroccan authorities, Zayou devoted himself to defending the rights of Saharawi political prisoners and training other human rights defenders. His employer, the Ministry of Housing and Politics of the city of El Aaiun argued that his transfer responded to a management need. However, these types of displacements are the punishments imposed by Morocco on Saharawi activists for explicitly expressing their positions on the conflict.

• Similarly, on 16 June 2017, human rights defender and ISACOM member Hassan Duihi was informed by his employer -the director of the Sakia Elhamra Regional Academy of Education and Training (AREF) of his transfer to the town of Boujdour, 200km from El Aaiun, his place of residence. Hassan Duihi had never applied for a transfer and had been reporting to his work regularly since November 2012, performing her duties without any incidents. His transfer took place right after him and his wife, human rights defender Mina Baali, participated respectively in the 34th and 35th sessions of the Human Rights Council in Geneva in March and June 2017 where they expressed their political convictions on the cause of Western Sahara.

• The defender and former political prisoner, member of the ISACOM executive, Mohamed Elmoutaoikil was also a victim of this situation and continues being one. In November 2001 he received a transfer order by the Ministry of Interior from Assa-Zag, his place of residence to Casablanca, Morocco, 700 km away. This order coincided with Elmoutaoikil’s heightened activism in the Truth and Equity Forum on Western Sahara that took place in El Aaiun in August 2000 and with his participation in the formation of a committee to demand the release of Saharawi political prisoners in November 2001. The Moroccan regime has been using this strategy of forced displacement as a punitive weapon against Saharawi defenders and activists for many years.

Recommendations   Fully guarantee the right of association by allowing the creation of NGOs, including those that defend the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people and allowing them to work openly in an environment free of repression.Fully guarantee the right to peaceful assembly of Saharawi defenders, ensuring that they can organize public events and gatherings without these being hindered or disrupted; without their participants being victims of persecution or harassment and; allowing those who document them to carry out their work without being repressed by the Moroccan authorities, including respecting their work equipment and/or material.Fully guarantee the right to freedom of expression of the Saharawi activists by ceasing the practice of sieging their private homes and guaranteeing their freedom of movement at all times.Immediately cease the siege of the home of defender Saultana Khayya, her sister Al Waara Khayya and her mother, as well as the harassment, threats and physical and psychological attacks, and urgently allow her access to medical services and support from her relatives.Cease the use of the National Promotion Cards as an instrument to limit the freedom of expression of Saharawi activists, allowing them to continue receiving the economic benefits that emanate from them regardless of their political statements. Guarantee the protection of Saharawi defenders from all violence, discrimination, threats and reprisals through defamatory campaigns in Moroccan media.Guarantee the protection of Saharawi defenders against arbitrary arrests and disproportionate prison sentences in the exercise of their rights, including for the expression of their opinion about the situation in Western Sahara.Guarantee the right of Saharawi defenders to the full enjoyment of their social, economic and political rights and freedoms by ceasing to resort to arbitrary dismissals as a form of retaliation for expressing their political opinions.Immediately stop blocking access to university scholarships and public transport vouchers for Saharawi activists and/or their relatives as a means of economic pressure to hinder their activities.Guarantee the exercise of the legal profession for Saharawi human rights defenders, including the registration of lawyers in training within bar associations.Guarantee the right of Saharawi defenders to choose their place of residence and to family life by ceasing to displace and to separate them from their homes and communities because of their political expressions.Apply the recommendations of UN Secretary General, Special Rapporteurs and of the diverse UN mechanisms calling for the protection of saharawi human rights defenders and guaranteeing that they work without fear of reprisals.

List of Annexes:

Annex 1: National Promotion Cards Report

Annex 2: List of Defenders whose Promotion Cards have been frozen

Annex 3: List of Defamed Defenders

Annex 4: List of defenders arbitrarily expelled from their jobs

Annex 5: List of defenders deprived of scholarships

Annex 6: List of defenders deprived of their right to freedom of movement.

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[1] General Assembly, Question of Western Sahara, A/Res/34/37 of 21 November 1979 available at: 

https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/34/37 and A/Res/35/19 of 11 November 1980 available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/35/19.

[2] The recording of parts of the moments of the expulsion can be found in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrvivCQKPHY

[3] Right Livelihood, Moroccan police prevented Sahrawi activists from celebrating 2019 Laureate Aminatou Haidar, 7 January 2020, available at: https://rightlivelihood.org/news/moroccan-police-prevent-sahrawi-activists-from-celebrating-2019-right-livelihood-award-laureate-aminatou-haidar/.

[4] Moroccan Penal Code, Law 73.15 of 2016, Art. 267-5: It is sanctioned with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 dirhams or one of these two penalties only to those who damage the Islamic religion, the monarchical regime or incite to attack the territorial integrity of the Kingdom. […] increases from two to five years in prison and a fine from 50,000 to 500,000 dirhams or one of its sentences only when the acts […] are committed either through speeches, shouts or threats in public places or meetings, or through posters exposed to public view […] or any means that meets the condition of publicity […].

[5] La Vanguardia, Justicia marroquí persigue a nueva ONG saharaui por atentar contra integridad, 29 September 2020, available at: https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20200929/483761786457/justicia-marroqui-persigue-a-nueva-ong-saharaui-por-atentar-contra-integridad.html and Yabiladi, Aminatou Haidar reagit à l’ouverture d’une enquête judiciaire contre son association, 30 September 2020, available at: https://www.yabiladi.com/articles/details/99664/aminatou-haidar-reagit-l-ouverture-d-une.html.

[6] Rights Livelihood, Morocco and Western Sahara: Stop the Smear Campaign and Prosecution of Aminatou Haidar and Sahrawi activists, 30 September 2020, available at: https://www.rightlivelihoodaward.org/media/morocco-and-western-sahara-stop-the-smear campaign-and-prosecution-of-aminatou-haidar-and-sahrawi-activists/ y Human Rights Watch, Morocco/Western Sahara, World Report 2021, available at: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/morocco/western-sahara#1bdb61.

[7] They cannot legally file complaints or convene meetings in public places in addition to the fact that they cannot rent offices, open bank accounts or participate in activities organized by the government.

[8] OHCHR, Morocco: UN human rights expert decries “clampdown” on human rights defenders, 1 july 2021, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27244&LangID=E y https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25731.

[9] Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Deep Concern Over Attacks on Human Rights Defender Sultana Khaya and the Retaliation Facing Sahrawi Activists In Western Sahara, 19 November 2021, available at: https://rfkhumanrights.org/concern-over-attacks-on-sultana-khaya.

[10] Euskal Fondoa, Manifestaciones y represión ante la llegada del enviado de la ONU para el Sahara Occidental Horst Köhler a El Aaiún ocupado, 29 june 2018, available at: https://www.euskalfondoa.eus/es/sahara/noticias/manifestaciones-y-represion-ante-la-llegada-del-enviado-de-la-onu-para-el-sahara-occidental-horst-kohler-a-el-aaiun-ocupado-/0-1410875106/#.YY1fEa3CB8w.gmail

[11] Nushatta Foundation, Excessive police force against peaceful sahrawi citizens and activists, available at: https://twitter.com/nushatta/status/1216537307462930432?s=27, 13 january 2020.

[12] OHCHR, Op cit. 8.

[13] Rights Livelihood, Joint statement on new assault against Human Rights Defender Aminatou Haidar in Western Sahara, 5 December 2021, available at: https://rightlivelihood.org/advocacy-updates/joint-statement-on-new-assault-against-human-rights-defender-aminatou-haidar-in-western-sahara/.

[14] Public communication on behalf of several UN Special Procedure mandate holders to the government of Morocco due to the accusations received with regards to the Ahl Khayya family and several other human rights defenders who fight for the cause of Western Sahara, 10 June 2021, available at: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=26478.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Upon returning to her school a few days later, she continued to be humiliated by her teachers and members of the administration to the extent that she had to leave school and move to a private school where she uses school transport to prevent the police from continuing to follow her as they had done so since the day of the incident.

^[17] Groupe de Travail de Territoires Occupées, National Promotion Cards (Al-Kartiya), a Moroccan soft Weapon Against Saharauis, 2021. See: Annexes 1 y 2: National Promotion Cards Report and List of Defenders whose Promotion Cards have been frozen.

^[18] The website of Sahrawikileaks Center is: www.sahrawikileaks.com.

[19] Among the prizes she has received are the following: Robert Kennedy 2008, Civil Courage Price 2009, Rene Casin 2011, Right Livelihood 2019.

[20] See some of the articles where Aminatou Haidar is defamed. Sahara Question, Aminatou Haidar, une poupée de chiffon entre les mains de son marionnettiste algérien, December 2020, available at: https://sahara-question.com/fr/opinions/19539; Map Express (Agence Marrocaine de Presse), Quand l’AFP fait hystériquement l’apologie du séparatisme, 3 December 2019, available at: http://www.mapexpress.ma/actualite/opinions-et-debats/lafp-fait-hysteriquement-lapologie-du-separatisme/#.XeaDRTjkVWQ.facebook

[21] United Nations General Assembly, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, A/HRC/45/36, para.88, Annex 1 paras. 79-80, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/45/36.

[22] See Annex 3: List of defamed defenders.

[23] The charges most commonly used by Morocco against defenders are included in the Moroccan Penal Code articles 181-200 (Crimes against the External Security of the State); articles 263 to 267 (Crimes Committed by persons against Public Order, Offenses and Violence against Public Officials) and; articles 580 to 607 (Destruction, Degradation and Damage).

[24] Adalah UK Human Rights for Western Sahara, British Adalah condemns the arrest of Al-Nozha Al-Khalidi available at: http://radiomaizirat.net/?p=39313.

[25] Frontline Defenders, Judicial Harrasment of Human Rights Defender Brahim Dihani, available at: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/brahim-dihani and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38cLRceftVM.

[26] Executive Bureau of the Sahrawi Organ against the Moroccan Occupation (ISACOM), Statement on the kidnapping of Saharawi militants and raiding of family home, 17 November 2020.

[27] RASD TV is the official television channel of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

[28] Human Rights Council, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.Opinion No. 11/2017 concerning Salah Eddine Bassir (Morocco), 20th April 2017, A/HRC/WGAD/2017/11. Available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/WGAD/2017/11.

[29] Article 263 of the Moroccan Penal Code establishes a custodial sentence of one month to one year and a fine of 250 to 5,000 dirhams for «anyone who, with the intention of undermining his honor, his delicacy or the respect due to his authority, despises the exercise of their functions or due to this exercise, a magistrate, a public official, a commander or agent of the public force, either through words, gestures, threats, sending or delivery of any object, whether in writing or drawing not made public.”

[30] Human Rights Council, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Opinion No. 52/2020 concerning Ali Salem Bujmaa, also known as Ali Saadouni (Morocco)*, 21 October 2020A/HRC/WGAD/2020/52, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/WGAD/2020/52. The sentence was later reduced to 5 months in prison. See also: https://www.usc.es/export9/sites/webinstitucional/gl/institutos/ceso/descargas/A_HRC_WGAD_2020_52_EN.pdf and https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/ali-al-sadouni-protests-alleged-torture-ill-treatment-arbitrary-arrest-and-unfair-sentencing.

[31] Article 581 of the Penal Code establishes a custodial sentence of 10 to 20 years for any person who sets fire to vehicles or other ships.

[32] La Vanguardia, Condenan a 20 años de cárcel a saharaui por tratar de quemar furgón policial, 4 March 2020 available at:https://www.lavanguardia.com/internacional/20200304/473969024290/condenan-a-20-anos-de-carcel-a-saharaui-por-tratar-de-quemar-furgon-policial.html.

[33] The Coordination of Saharawi Human Rights Associations: Police violence in the occupied cities of Western Sahara. Report for the period of 19 November to 17 December 2020. El Aaiun/Western Sahara, 18 December 2020, p. 7.

[34] International Association of Jurist for Western Sahara, Morocco condemns two young Saharawis for their participation in demonstrations for self-determination in Western Sahara. The young men were arrested by the Moroccan police for their participation in a demonstration on 14 September 2021, and the first instance criminal trial was held on 27 September 2021.

[35] Moroccon Penal Code Art. 267-5, Op cit, 4.

[36] See: https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/inhofe-brown-urge-state-department-to-engage-with-moroccan-government-over-human-rights-abuses.

[37] See: https://twitter.com/nushatta/status/1472300846100717574?s=12.

[38] See Annex 4 : List of defenders arbitrarily expelled from their jobs.

[39] These periods were April 2017 until March 2018 and the second time her salary was frozen was from April 2018 until Novemeber 2018.

[40] See Annex 5: List of defenders deprived of their scholarships.

[41] Le360, Sahara: Mise En échec d’une tentative de déstabilisation orchestrée par le polisario, enero de 2019, disponible en: https://fr.le360.ma/politique/sahara-mise-en-echec-dune-tentative-de-destabilisation-orchestree-par-le-polisario-182667 and Annex 6: List of defenders deprived of their right to freedom of movement.

[42] The police forces were accompanied by intelligence agents under the command of the Basha of the city of El Aaiun and the prefect of the Moroccan police Hassan Aboudahab.

[43] The attacks were committed by Moroccan commissioner Kaya Ahmed.