Call to Action for Political Prisoners in Morocco
The Western Sahara Human Rights Defenders Collective (CODESA) has formally appealed to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, members of the UN Security Council, and various UN human rights mechanisms, urging them to exert pressure on the Moroccan occupying state to release Sahrawi political prisoners currently held in Moroccan prisons. This appeal was articulated in a human rights memorandum sent to the UN regarding the status of the 'Gdeim Izik' group prisoners and all Sahrawi political detainees, emphasizing that their continued detention starkly contradicts the decisions made by UN human rights mechanisms.
CODESA highlighted the urgent need for necessary measures to be implemented to ensure the protection of these prisoners. This includes monitoring the execution of relevant UN mechanisms, conducting independent assessments of their conditions, and ensuring that they are not subjected to torture, mistreatment, or retaliation. Furthermore, it stressed the importance of safeguarding their rights to health care, communication, visitation, fair trials, and reparation in accordance with international standards.
Significance of Recent Developments
The organization underscored the accumulation of various positions and decisions from specialized UN mechanisms, particularly the opinion of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) No. 2023/23, which concluded that the deprivation of liberty for a segment of 'Gdeim Izik' prisoners was arbitrary and fell under both the first and third categories of arbitrary detention. CODESA also acknowledged the significance of 2026, particularly following the decisions issued by the United Nations Committee Against Torture on April 24 regarding allegations of torture and mistreatment concerning two prisoners from the group, Mohamed Lamín Hadi and Sidi Ahmed Lamjid. These decisions addressed issues such as torture prevention, treatment of detainees, the obligation for impartial investigations, and the right to complaint and reparation.
In conjunction with these developments, CODESA noted a resurgence of protests and hunger strikes by several 'Gdeim Izik' prisoners in Moroccan prisons during September 2026. These actions have brought renewed attention to issues such as solitary confinement, family visitation, communication, proximity to families, healthcare, and the fulfillment of commitments reached in previous dialogues.
In light of these circumstances, the organization called for the UN's specialized mechanisms to be enabled to directly verify these situations, urging UN bodies to give special attention to the ongoing conditions of 'Gdeim Izik' prisoners and other Sahrawi political detainees in Moroccan prisons within their reports and follow-ups. CODESA emphasized that the evolving circumstances faced by Sahrawi political prisoners necessitate a transition from merely issuing recommendations and decisions to ensuring their implementation, monitoring, and independent verification of compliance. It stressed that the approach to the 'Gdeim Izik' case should be rooted in 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.
