The Norwegian Support Committee of Western Sahara supports the struggle for democracy across the Arab world. Dictators and security forces have for too long dominated the region and suppressed the peoples' call for freedom.
From Western Sahara to Syria and Iran peaceful demonstrators have been met with violence and oppression. This is unacceptable and a brutal breach of fundamental human rights.
The protests started outside El Aaiún, the capital of Western Sahara, in late October 2010. In a protest camp set up in the occupied territory, around 20 000 Saharawi demonstrated against the marginalisation and discrimination they encounter in their own country. On 8 November 2010 the Moroccan security forces attacked the camp with brutal force. This resulted in large street battles all over occupied Western Sahara where a large proportion of the Saharawi population participated. Several people were killed.
The protests in Western Sahara are still ongoing, as in most of the Arab world. The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara expresses its solidarity with all people who seek freedom and democracy in a peaceful way. We support the Moroccan 20 February movement's demands for democratic reforms. The people of both Morocco and Western Sahara are ruled by an undemocratic regime. We call on the Moroccan government to not attack protesters and start sweeping democratic reforms.
The dictators that attack their own people in Libya, Yemen and Syria, are not leaders of their people, but despots that holds them down.
We call on leaders in all Arab nations and Iran to call free elections, start democratic reforms and respect human rights.
This resolution was adopted by the annual assembly of The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara on 26 March.
UN body calls for the release of imprisoned Saharawi student
In a decision published yesterday, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concludes that the detention of the Saharawi student and human rights defender Al-Hussein Al-Bachir Ibrahim is arbitrary. The UN Working Group called on Morocco to immediately release him from the deplorable prison conditions.
Two Norwegians Are Now Being Deported from Occupied Western Sahara
Two more Norwegians, who travelled to occupied Western Sahara to learn about Morocco’s controversial energy projects in the territory, were detained by Moroccan police this afternoon and deported.
Norwegians deported from occupied Western Sahara - wanted to learn about renewable energy
Today, 25 Moroccan police officers showed up to expel two Norwegians from occupied Western Sahara. The two had traveled to learn what the Sahrawis think about Morocco's controversial renewable energy projects on occupied land.
UN committee highlights Moroccan impunity in occupied Western Sahara
Sahrawi civil society welcomes a new report from the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance, and urges exhumations and identification of victims in the Morocco-occupied Western Sahara.