Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination

Representatives of 18 countries, 36 unions at International Forum of Solidarity with Sahrawi People
CHAHID EL-HAFED- The secretary general of the General Union of the Workers of Sakiat el-Hamra and Oued-Edhahab, Salama El-Bachir, said the International Forum of Solidarity with Sahrawi People, to be held in the refugee camps on October 20, 21 and 22, will be attended by 86 participants representing 18 countries and 36 trade unions.
The event coincides with the 48th anniversary of the National Workers' Day, according to Salama El-Bachir, in parallel with the return to armed struggle and the fight on the military, diplomatic, legal and political fronts, the Sahrawi news agency SPS reported.
The secretary general of the General Union of Sahrawi Workers said the forum will be an opportunity for coordination among the participating international unions, for a better defence of Western Sahara people's rights to self-determination.
Such coordination will allow Western Sahara people to make their voices heard all over the world.
The forum will shed light on the suffering of Sahrawi workers and citizens in the occupied areas, and who are living under the repression of Moroccan occupiers, deprived of their most basic rights guaranteed by the international charters.
 
Western Sahara: Pierre Galand advocates extension of Minurso mandate to protection of human rights
ALGIERS-The president of the European Coordination for the Support and Solidarity with the Sahrawi People (Eucoco), Pierre Galand stressed the importance of providing the mandate of the Minurso with a mechanism for monitoring the human rights of the Sahrawi people, denouncing the support and complicity of some Western powers to the Moroccan colonization of Western Sahara.
 
While the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) expires on October 31, Galand advocated "an extension to the protection of human rights of the Sahrawi people," in an interview with APS on the occasion of his visit to Algiers to participate Wednesday in the meeting of the "Task Force" of the EU-CSO.
"It is necessary that Minurso can deal with human rights. This issue must be reviewed within the United Nations," he said.
According to the president of the Eucoco, "Morocco is martyring the Sahrawi people and all activists defending the Sahrawi cause are imprisoned, tortured, and put under control.”
The UN should be aware of the obligation of member states of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) towards the Sahrawi refugees.
Regarding the armed struggle between the Sahrawis and the Moroccan occupation forces since the breakdown of the ceasefire by Morocco in 2020, Galand denounced a law of silence imposed by Rabat, which seeks to prevent all delegations from accessing the occupied territories, calling on Minurso "to go to the field and make reports to relay the reality of what is happening.”
"Today, the UN and Minurso need to pop the plug. They must go out to report the facts, how natural resources are plundered and people mistreated and imprisoned in violation of the Geneva Conventions (...). Minurso must uphold the Geneva Conventions," he said.
 
 
Installation, in Bogota, of Columbia-SADR parliamentary friendship group
 
BOGOTA- The parliamentary friendship group between Columbia’s House of Representatives and the Sahrawi National Council (Parliament) was installed Tuesday, in Bogota, in the presence of the ambassador of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) to Latin America and the Caribbean Mohamed Azrouk.
The installation ceremony of this group took place in the presence of Algeria’s ambassador to Columbia Ahmed Hachemi, accompanied by deputy ambassador Faci Mohamed Hamza.
In addition to the members of the Columbian-Sahrawi parliamentary friendship group, the ambassador of Columbia to Spain Luis Guillermo Plata Paez, as well as representatives of human rights organizations to Columbia and Spain, participated in this ceremony.
On this occasion, the participants welcomed “the role of Algerian diplomacy, notably in defending the peoples’ rights to self-determination in accordance with the principles of the international law and its call to the compliance with the international legality.”