A seminar in Johannesburg on human rights situation in Western Sahara
26/05/2007

The South African Commission of Human Rights organised on Friday in its seat in Johannesburg a seminar on the human rights situation in Western Sahara, indicated a source from the Saharawi Embassy in Pretoria.

The seminar was attended by representatives from the South African Foreign Affairs Ministry, to members of the diplomatic corps accredited in South Africa, representatives of political parties, journalists, searchers and representatives of the representatives of the movement of solidarity with the Saharawi cause from Algeria, Spain, Sweden and Britain in addition to a Saharawi delegation representing the Saharawi State and civil society.


The Seminar, which started at 10 o’clock in the morning to end at 3 p.m knew the intervention of Mr. Jordi Kolappen, the President of the South African Commission of Human Rights, who stressed his organisation concern about the serious situation of the human rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara.

He added that the seminar aims to raise the awareness among the South African civil society and government’s bodies to help protect the human rights in the occupied Western Sahara and to defend the Saharawi peoples’ rights to self-determination in Africa and in international forums.


Mrs. Swart Lara, the Deputy Director of the Department of North Africa in the South African Ministry stressed on her side her government’s call on the international community to meet with its responsibility in the finishing of the decolonisation process in Western Sahara.

She added that South Africa, which suffered a lot from repression under the Apartheid regime, will save no effort to put pressures so as to make the decolonisation of the last colony in Africa prompt and fair.

The seminar was also an opportunity for the audience to hear a moving testimony from the Saharawi human rights activist and ex-political prisoner, Mrs. Fatma Ayach, who gave to the participant an idea of the Moroccan human rights violations by telling her own experience with disappearance, torture and illegal detention.


“The situation is really dangerous now, she said, and any additional delay in resolving the problem in accordance with the international law will push the whole region to disaster”.

The audience also listened to interventions from, Mr. Eddy Makue, the Secretary General of the Council of South African Churches, Mr. Ubbi BAchir, the Saharawi Ambassador in South Africa, Dr. Timothy Othieno, Searcher in the Global Dialogue centre in addition to interventions from Mr. Ahmed Sidi Ali, from Landmine Action, and Dr. Saaid El Ayachi, the person in charge of human rights programmes in the Algerian Committee of solidarity with the Saharawi people.

In the margin of the seminar the South African Commission of Human Rights organised an exhibition of the photos of Saharawi victims of repression and torture in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara.