- The Spanish Human rights organisation has called for the release of Yahya Mohamed Alhafed Iaaza, and other Sahrawi political prisoners who are still in the Moroccan prisons. Mr Iaaza is serving a 15 years imprisonment sentence in the prison of Ait Melloul in Morocco.
An official of the Federation of Defense and Promotion of Human Rights in Spain, called for the creation of a mechanism for the protection and surveillance of human rights in Western Sahara in accordance with the recommendations of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, ad hoc committee of the European Parliament.
The official said the UN Security also adopted a resolution on Western Sahara in April stressing the importance of making progress on the human dimension in Western Sahara to promote transparency and mutual confidence among the Sahrawi.
The Federation described the decision to adopt a resolution on Western Sahara as a new hope to enable the Sahrarwi people exercise their inalienable rights to self-determination and independence.
The group however said this can not happen until the major human rights agencies of the United Nations, particularly the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Security Council take in hand this issue that needs particular attention.
“This request is most urgent at the persistence of serious human rights violations in the occupied territories of Western Sahara,” the official said.
Since 1991, the UN mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has been tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between the two parties and organising a long-stalled referendum on self-determination.
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