The organization known as the Coalition of Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara (CODESA) has made a formal appeal to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, members of the UN Security Council, and UN human rights mechanisms. Their request is for urgent action to pressure the Moroccan occupying state for the release of Sahrawi political prisoners currently held in Moroccan prisons.
This plea was articulated in a rights memorandum sent to the United Nations, specifically addressing the situation of the 'Gdeim Izik' group prisoners and all Sahrawi political detainees. CODESA emphasized that the ongoing detention of these individuals starkly contradicts the decisions made by UN human rights mechanisms.
In this context, CODESA underscored the necessity of implementing measures to ensure the protection of these prisoners and to follow up on the execution of relevant UN mechanisms. They called for independent verification of the prisoners’ conditions, ensuring they are not subjected to torture, ill-treatment, or retaliation, and advocating for their rights to health, communication, visitation, fair trial, and reparation according to international standards.
The organization highlighted a series of positions and decisions issued by specialized UN mechanisms, notably the opinion of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, numbered 2023/23 WGAD/HRC/A. This opinion concluded that the deprivation of liberty for some members of the 'Gdeim Izik' group was arbitrary and fell into the first and third categories of arbitrary detention.
CODESA also pointed out that the year 2026 is particularly significant, following the adoption of decisions by the UN Committee Against Torture on April 24 concerning two individual cases related to two prisoners from the group, Mohamed Lamine Hadi and Sidi Ahmed Lmajid. These decisions addressed allegations of torture and ill-treatment, prevention of torture, treatment of detainees, the obligation of impartial investigation, the right to complain, and reparation.
Simultaneously, CODESA noted that Moroccan prisons saw renewed protests and hunger strikes in September 2026 from several members of the 'Gdeim Izik' group, bringing to light issues of isolation, family visits, communication, proximity to families, healthcare, and the fulfillment of commitments reached in previous dialogues.
In this regard, the organization called for the UN specialized mechanisms to be enabled to directly verify these conditions, urging UN bodies to give special attention to the ongoing situation of the 'Gdeim Izik' prisoners and other Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan jails within the framework of UN reports and follow-ups.
Furthermore, the human rights organization stressed that the successive developments and the experiences of Sahrawi political prisoners necessitate a transition from merely issuing recommendations and decisions to ensuring their implementation, monitoring, and independent verification of compliance. Addressing the issue of the 'Gdeim Izik' group should be rooted in the principles of truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-recurrence, with full respect for the rights of both victims and prisoners alike.
As reported by aps.dz.
