Growing International Demands for Accountability
The international community's calls for accountability regarding the treatment of Sahrawi prisoners are intensifying, particularly as members of the "Gdeim Izik" group continue their hunger strike. This situation coincides with the release of a Norwegian human rights report documenting the testimonies of four Sahrawi students who have experienced torture, solitary confinement, and deprivation of medical care within Moroccan prisons. The report sheds light on the dire conditions faced by these prisoners and highlights the urgent need for intervention by human rights organizations.
Details of the Hunger Strike and Human Rights Violations
Recent developments concerning the "Gdeim Izik" group have prompted the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture to issue a statement expressing their deep concern over the ongoing hunger strike initiated by several detainees on September 23. This protest is a response to their continued detention and the degrading conditions of their imprisonment. The prisoners are demanding the implementation of recommendations from United Nations mechanisms regarding their case, as well as their transfer to prisons located in occupied Sahrawi territories to facilitate communication with their families. Currently, eight detainees continue their hunger strike, including prominent figures such as Naima Asfari and Ahmed Sebai. The statement also notes that another prisoner, Bashir Khda, has suspended his strike after being transferred to the local prison in Laayoune, while Asfari and Zawi remain on strike despite being moved to different facilities.
The significance of these developments is underscored by the fact that the members of the Gdeim Izik group have been held for over sixteen years since their arrest. Their demands are closely linked to decisions and opinions issued by specialized UN mechanisms. Instead of witnessing a resolution to their situation and the guarantee of their fundamental rights, their conditions continue to require urgent attention from human rights organizations, thereby placing the Moroccan authorities under scrutiny regarding their legal and human rights obligations.
Furthermore, the human rights indicators do not solely pertain to the Gdeim Izik group. The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara recently published a report titled "Sahrawi Students Subjected to Beatings, Solitary Confinement, and Deprivation of Medical Care in Moroccan Prisons." This report was prepared in collaboration with the National Union of Students in Norway and the legal assistance clinic "Jussbuss," based on interviews with four Sahrawi students released this year after spending ten years in prison. The testimonies collected in this report recount experiences of torture during arrest and interrogation, threats, coercion to sign confessions that they were not allowed to read, solitary confinement, denial of medical treatment, and restrictions on communication with families. The students also reported facing barriers to continuing their education, indicating that the consequences of their imprisonment extend beyond their time in jail, impacting their future educational and social prospects.
The testimonies come from four students—Kentaoui Albour, Aziz Wahidi, Abd Al-Moula Hafidi, and Mohamed Dada—who were arrested in 2016 alongside other students. Their accounts carry additional weight as the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded in a 2019 opinion regarding their case that their arrests and detentions were arbitrary and motivated by discriminatory persecution due to their political activism and support for the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination. The UN body called for their immediate release; however, these students remained incarcerated for several more years, only to be released upon completing their unjust sentences in 2026.
These findings place accountability at the center of the human rights discourse concerning Sahrawi prisoners. The situation goes beyond mere testimonies about prison conditions; it also involves a previous UN assessment regarding the nature and reasons for their detention. The ongoing restrictions on medical care and family communication, as reported by former detainees, implicate Moroccan authorities in the continuous violations of Sahrawi prisoners' rights, reflecting a policy of repression that affects their most basic human rights, in violation of legal guarantees meant to protect them from abuse and mistreatment. This trajectory is supported by the conclusions drawn by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in its opinion A/HRC/WGAD/2023/23 concerning members of the Gdeim Izik group, addressing the legal basis for their detention and fair trial guarantees, ultimately concluding that their detention was arbitrary and calling for necessary measures to rectify their situation. This document confirms that the case of Sahrawi prisoners has undergone direct UN scrutiny, and the current human rights demands are based on a trajectory that transcends mere expressions of solidarity to include legal opinions issued by UN mechanisms.
As reported by aps.dz.
