Occupied El Aaiun, 9 December 2023 (SPS) - Civil society in Western Sahara has called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to reject Morocco's candidacy for the presidency of the Council for the 2024 session due to its abysmal human rights record as a military occupier of Western Sahara and its refusal to cooperate with UN bodies.
In a joint statement, more than 20 Sahrawi human rights associations emphasized that while Morocco aspires to win the rotating presidency of the UNHRC for the year 2024, a position that would enable it to oversee thousands of human rights complaints from around the world, civil society in Western Sahara urges the Council to reject Rabat's candidacy for this position.
Considering Morocco's appalling human rights record as a country that militarily occupies the territories of Western Sahara, where the worst human rights violations are committed, and its refusal to cooperate with UN bodies, "Morocco is not qualified to chair the UNHRC," the document asserts.
For the representatives of the Sahrawi civil society, Morocco has miserably failed to meet the basic criteria required to claim the presidency of the Council. Since becoming a member of the Council in 2022, Morocco has intensified its intimidation of journalists, opponents of its colonization policy, and human rights activists.
The worst human rights violations by Morocco occur in the occupied Sahrawi territories since 1975, where "the human rights situation and the humanitarian crisis have reached dramatic proportions," the statement highlights, recalling that Rabat has opposed the visits of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other observers and representatives of international organizations over the past eight years.
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