Urgent Calls for Action to Protect Rights Defender
GENEVA (Switzerland), October 1, 2026 (WAS) - The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) has expressed profound concern regarding the health risks faced by Sahrawi human rights defender, Niama Asfari, who has been engaged in an open-ended hunger strike along with eight of his companions from the Gdeim Izik group since September 23. In a statement, the organization urged Moroccan authorities to take urgent measures to ensure his life and physical safety, while also calling on Rabat to adhere to recommendations from the United Nations Human Rights Council and implement decisions from the Committee Against Torture, as well as the opinions of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention without further delay.
Details of the Hunger Strike and Historical Context
According to the organization’s statement, which cites relatives of Niama Asfari, he and eight other detained activists renewed their hunger strike on September 23, 2026. The family reported that during a phone call on September 29, Asfari confirmed he had been transferred to a prison in Marrakech and continues his hunger strike alongside his fellow activists, despite efforts by Moroccan authorities to compel him to end it. Asfari is one of nine Sahrawi human rights defenders who were sentenced following the violent dismantling of the Gdeim Izik protest camp in Western Sahara in 2010. The ISHR also reminded that in May 2026, the United Nations Committee Against Torture reaffirmed its findings that Morocco's detention of activists linked to the Gdeim Izik camp indicates a 'persistent pattern of arbitrary arrests, solitary confinement, and torture or ill-treatment during interrogation, followed by the use of coerced confessions in judicial proceedings.' Earlier this year, Asfari undertook a 47-day hunger strike, dubbed the 'Battle of Dignity,' from June 8 to July 24, protesting Morocco’s failure to comply with UN calls to improve the conditions of his detention and that of his colleagues and work towards their release.
Asfari initially ended his hunger strike after a visit from a delegation of the General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration in Morocco. Reports indicated that the delegation promised to transfer him to a prison closer to his family’s residence, addressing one of the demands that prompted his hunger strike. It is noteworthy that the number of Gdeim Izik group detainees currently on hunger strike has been forcibly relocated to several prisons under poor conditions, as a form of reprisal for their choice to engage in this battle of empty stomachs, demanding that the occupying Moroccan authorities implement decisions from the Committee Against Torture and the opinions of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning the Gdeim Izik case.
As reported by spsrasd.info.
