Joint action on the human right to peace promoted by the Foundation Peace without Borders and the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law.

Joint action on the human right to peace promoted by the Foundation Peace without Borders and the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law. Today 21 September 2012 -International Day of Peace- Juanes and Miguel Bosé will launch the video "Peace is a human right". It provides the support of well-known artists, musicians, actors, actresses and sportsmen to the recognition of the human right to peace within the United Nations. The video is screened in 12 languages, namely: Spanish, English, French, Chinese, Russia, Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian and German. The following popular persons have participated in the video: Miguel Bosé (singer of Spain), Juanes (singer of Colombia), Ricky Martin (singer of Puerto Rico), Alejandro Sanz (singer of Spain), Eva Longoria (actress of the United States of America), Paulina Rubio (actress and singer of Mexico), Daniel Martin (singer of Spain), Rafael Nadal (tennis player of Spain), Pau Gasol (basket player of Spain), Juan Luis Guerra (singer of Dominican Republic) and Amaia Montero Saldías (singer of Spain). In this line they want to launch a campaign for signatures in support of and commitment with the process of codification of the human right to peace within the United Nations. As of today more than 13.000 worldwide citizens have signed the petition in support, among other matters, of the Open Ended Working Group on the Right to peace established by the Human Rights Council in June 2012. The appeal of support to peace as a human right will be submitted to the President of the UN General Assembly once the future Declaration on the Human Right to Peace is adopted by the Human Rights Council. We encourage you to raise your voice in favour of the human right to peace and its final recognition in the United Nations. In order to sign the petition, please, see at http://www.pazsinfronteras.org Please, distribute this petition among 20 friends, colleagues and peace-makers. Each of us are and will be the master of our own future. Happy International Day of Peace!!

قوات القمع المغربية تفرق بالقوة تظاهرة سلمية بالعيون المحتلة

الاخبار يوم 17 سبتمبر 2012 معلومات اولية قوات القمع المغربية تفرق بالقوة تظاهرة سلمية بالعيون المحتلة فرقت قوات الإحتلال المغربية بالقوة مظاهرة سلمية نظمتهاالجماهير الصحراوية بشارع السمارة في العيون المحتلة مساء اليوم الإثنين ، وإستعملت الأجهزة المغربية الرمي بالحجارة والضرب المباشر بالعصي ، في تدخل سافر شاركت فيه قوات أمنية بزي مدني ، ضد متظاهرين مسالمين ، وقد تعرض العديد من المواطنين والنشطاء الحقوقيين للتعنيف ينتمون للجمعيات 11 التي دعت إلى التظاهر تزامنا مع زيارة المقرر الأممي الخاص بالتعذيب لمطالبة الأمم المتحدة بوضع الية لمراقبة حقوق الإنسان بالصحراء الغربية . وعكس ما ذهبت إليه بعض المواقع المشبوهة بوجود مواجهات ، فإن الجماهير الصحراوية إلتزمت بسلمية تظاهرها للتعبير عن مواقفها الرافضة للوجود المغربي على أرض الصحراء الغربية فمباشرة بعد إنطلاق التظاهرة السلمية بقيادة نشطاء صحراويين بارزين تدخلت القوات الأمنية لتفريق المتظاهرين بالقوة وقال ابراهيم دحان الناشط الحقوقي رئيس الجمعية الصحراوية لضحايا إنتهاكات حقوق الإنسان و أحد المشاركين في تصريح للفريق الإعلامي أن هذا التدخل يعطي صورة واضحة عن إرهاب الدولة الذي تمارسه الدولة المغربية في الشارع العام ضد الموطنين الصحراويين بإستعمال بلطجية مدربين لقمع المظاهرات السلمية وأضاف أن الوقفة جاءت لتبعث أكثر من رسالة أولها أن الجماهير الصحراوية مصرة على العمل السلمي لفضح كافة إنتهاكات حقوق الإنسان ، و اننا كإطارات دعت للتظاهرة ملتزمون بمشاركة هاته الجماهير في مطالبها المشروع مضيفا أن الدولة المغربية بهذا التدخل تعلن إصرارا على مواصلة نفس مسلسل الإنتهاكات الجسيمة مشددا أن المواطنين الصحراويين والجمعيات الصحراوية نجحت في هدفها وفي التعبير عن موقفها رغم التدخل العنيف والقوي ضدنا ودعى العالم والدول الداعمة للربيع العربي لدعم الشعب الصحراوي حتى نيل حريته وإستقلاله . وكان هذا الناشط قد تعرض لتعنيف قوي من طرف الأمن المغربي رفقة كل من أبراهيم الصبارو حسنة الدويهي ولحبيب الصالحي ، ماماي هنون ، سلطانة خي ونشطاء ومواطنون أخرون نقل العديد منهم إلى المستشفى سجلنا كفريق إعلامي حالة كل من بشري بنطالب وحدهم لمجيد لحدود كتابة هذا المقال حيث لازالت مداهمات المنازل بحي معطلا الذي عاني ويعاني من تطويق أمني كبير و التي تستهدف ناشطين وحسب المعلومات الأولية التي توصل بها الفريق الإعلامي فقد تعرضت الزميلة والناشطة النكية الحواصي عضو الفريق للتعذيب إثر هذا التدخل ، ويبدو أن الدولة المغربية إستعملت أسلوبا جديدا من خلال تجيش الشوارع برجال أمن ومخابرات بزي مدني وإستعمالهم كبلطجية لترهيب المواطنين ، يذكر أن المقرر الأممي الخاص بالتعذيب يزور العيون المحتلة خلال يومي الإثنين والثلاثاء و إلتقى اليوم عدد من ضحايا إنتهاكات حقوق الإنسان بالصحراء الغربية ، كما إلتقى كل من الجمعية الصحراوية لضحايا الإنتهاكات الجسيمة لحقوق الإنسان وتجمع المدافعين الصحراويين عن حقوق الإنسان .ويأمل الصحراويين من هذه الزيارة أن تضع مطلب توسيع صلاحيات بعثة المينورسو لتشمل مراقبة حقوق الإنسان في أولويات المنتظم الدولي وفيما يلي لائحة أولية عن ضحايا التدخل العنيف لحبيب الصالحي ، ابراهيم دحان ، بشري بنطالب ، حسنة الدويهي ، حدهم لمجيد ، ابراهيم الصبار ، النكية الحواصي ، اللومادي عبد السلام ، سلطانة خيا ، الداودي مبارك ، لغزال المحجوب ، عبد الله بوكعة ، الليلي حمود ، فاطمتو بارة( منت الشهيد) حمدي ديدا سلم النومرية ، سليمة ليمام ، احمد العسري ، احمد مطيع ، محمد خر ، احمد الطنجي ، علي سالم حيدان ، مكبولة لحماد ، حديدهم لعروسي ، بشرى بوتباعة ، متو لكركار ، منة لهويدي ، عبد الهادي ياسين ، الزروالي يسلم ، سعيد فنيش ، سالم اطويف ، محمد طالب اخيار الفريق الاعلامي المناطق المحتلة الصحراء الغربية

Western Sahara: It’s Time for the People to Choose

Western Sahara: It’s Time for the People to Choose By Carne Ross | SEP 05, 2012 Photo Credit: Manifestation de Sahraouis by Sylvain Raybaud The latest diplomatic dance on whether or not former US Ambassador Christopher Ross should be allowed to continue to mediate UN-led talks between the Frente Polisario and Morocco on the future of Western Sahara is symptomatic of a much bigger problem ― the large powers’ unwillingness to advance an end to a dispute that they mistakenly see as peripheral to their strategic interests, and their resultant acquiescence in the brutal and illegal occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco for more than 35 years. Western Sahara is not part of Morocco, nor has it ever been. When still under Spanish colonial rule in 1963, Western Sahara was listed by the UN as a Non-Self-Governing Territory, putting it on the same path towards independence traveled by almost all other colonial territories in Africa. Spain was expected and indeed obliged to oversee a process of decolonization that it completely failed to deliver upon. Instead, Spain’s withdrawal in 1975 was knowingly orchestrated to leave the territory to a tripartite administration with Mauritania and Morocco that eventually led to the illegal annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco. It is therefore not an accident that not one country anywhere in the world has recognized Moroccan sovereignty in Western Sahara, and that the African Union counts the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), governed by the Frente Polisario, as one of its founding members. As the International Court of Justice put it in 1975, “neither the internal nor the international acts relied upon by Morocco indicate the existence at the relevant period of either the existence or the international recognition of legal ties of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and the Moroccan State.” Following Morocco’s “Green March” into the Territory in 1975, and after more than 15 years of fighting between the Frente Polisario and the Moroccan armed forces, a ceasefire and UN Settlement Plan was agreed between the parties and endorsed by the UN Security Council. At its heart was the establishment of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). The Settlement Plan provided for a short transitional period for the preparation of a referendum in which the people of Western Sahara ― the Saharawis ― would choose between two clear options: independence or integration with Morocco. All subsequent plans put forward to resolve the dispute, including those brokered by former US Secretary of State James Baker, have revolved around the same principle: it is for the people of Western Sahara to decide their own political future. Since 1991, Morocco has blocked the holding of the referendum that it itself agreed to and that was the basis for the ceasefire and the Settlement Plan. The UN presence, mandated to organize a referendum within six months of the ceasefire, has been seriously hamstrung by Moroccan interference. This includes restrictions on the freedom of movement of UN personnel, heavy monitoring and restriction of access to Saharawi leaders and human rights activists and, as revealed by the UN Secretary-General in his most recent report (UN Doc. S/2012/197), unlawful interception of the UN’s secret diplomatic communications. Even worse, Morocco’s chief ally on the Security Council, France ― despite its vocal support for democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, and its trumpeting of its own virtuous record in this area ― has routinely prevented the Security Council from even allowing the UN to monitor human rights in the Territory. The result is that MINURSO is the only UN peacekeeping mission established since 1978 to be operating without this most basic of capacities, despite the UN itself considering human rights monitoring to be an indispensible feature of modern peacekeeping. The only logical conclusion is that Morocco has something to hide. It has. In its confidential, internal contribution to the UN Secretary-General’s report on Western Sahara in 2011, the UN’s own High Commissioner for Human Rights said that alleged violations of human rights “demonstrate the critical need for…regular independent, impartial and sustained human rights monitoring and reporting within a clear mandate covering the entire Territory and [the Tindouf] refugee camps.” Moreover, the US State Department’s 2011 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Western Sahara confirmed “credible reports that [Moroccan] security forces engaged in torture, beatings, and other mistreatment of detainees,” and that “Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and local NGOs continued to report abuses, especially of Sahrawi independence advocates.” But this all pales in comparison to the humanitarian tragedy of the 150,000 or so Saharawis left languishing in refugee camps near Tindouf in southwest Algeria, driven from their homes in Western Sahara by the invading Moroccan forces and thereafter kept at bay by a 1,200 kilometer-long militarized wall (the “Berm”) that separates the Moroccan-controlled portion of Western Sahara from the “Free Zone” controlled by the Polisario (see map here). Setting aside for a moment the appalling humanitarian consequences of this so-called “frozen conflict,” it is even more disheartening to consider the largely haphazard and piecemeal attempts by the UN and its Security Council to broker a solution. Successive “Personal Envoys” of the Secretary-General ― charged with facilitating negotiations between the two parties ― have lacked the strong backing of the Security Council necessary to force progress. Those envoys appointed since 2007 ― when Morocco presented its disingenuous proposal for Western Saharan autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, and the Polisario demanded, in accordance with past agreements, a referendum that includes independence as an option ― have tended to focus on the stark differences between the two proposals. But this approach may be flawed, ignoring the simple fact that both parties’ proposals would involve a vote of some kind. So the real question is: Who gets to vote, and on what? Given the chance, current Personal Envoy Christopher Ross might focus the parties on answering these questions. But Moroccan antics and Security Council inattention have conspired to allow the UN process to drift on aimlessly for years. Unfortunately, Ross’s energy this year has been focused on securing his own job as Personal Envoy following Morocco’s announcement in May that it no longer had confidence in him, making the ridiculous claims that he was “partial” for having dared to detail in the Secretary-General’s latest report Morocco’s systematic interference with MINURSO’s operations. It would actually not take much to advance the resolution of this long-standing dispute. The United States and France both have bilateral ties with Morocco, but that does not mean that Morocco’s position should be supported at all costs. The US State Department has itself acknowledged that “the Western Sahara dispute remains the primary impediment to regional integration and development goals and Moroccan-Algerian relations.” As a result, the Maghreb suffers from unfulfilled economic potential and a fragmented response to the threat of terrorism that is of increasing concern to the Western powers holding the biggest levers for resolving the dispute in Western Sahara ― the US and France. Facilitating a solution to the Western Sahara dispute is an indispensible piece for solving this regional jigsaw puzzle. When history, international law, regional geopolitics and security concerns all point to the same conclusion, there is really no other option. It’s time for the Security Council to assume control and accelerate resolution of the dispute by deciding on a clear timetable and deadline for holding a referendum on self-determination, as required by international law. It’s time to let the people choose. Read more: North Africa Western Sahara Foreign Relations Diplomacy Conflict Resolution Happening Now IN THIS SERIES Western Sahara: Deferred Referendum or Lasting Settlement? Autonomy: The Optimal Political Solution Western Sahara: It’s Time for the People to Choose ABOUT THE AUTHOR Carne Ross Carne Ross is Executive Director of Independent Diplomat, and has numerous years of experience working with the British foreign office and the UK delegation on the United Nations Security Council. VIEW SCHOLAR PAGE SHARE THIS RELATED BY REGIONISSUE ANALYSIS // JUL 19, 2012 Dealing with Unbalanced Reciprocities: Cooperation on Readmission and Implications Jean-Pierre Cassarino ANALYSIS // JUL 19, 2012 Introduction to Unbalanced Reciprocities: Cooperation on Readmission in the Euro-Mediterranean Area MEI Staff ANALYSIS // JUL 06, 2012 Responses to Western Sahara: Deferred Referendum or Lasting Settlement? Edward M. Gabriel , Carne Ross 1 of 5››