Download or read book Human Rights in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf Refugee Camps written by Human Rights Watch (Organization) and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This report is in two parts. Part one examines present-day human rights conditions in Western Sahara. Part two examines present-day human rights conditions in the Sahrawi refugee camps administered by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario), the Sahrawi independence organization, near Tindouf, Algeria. For Western Sahara, the focus of Human Rights Watch's investigation is the right of persons to speak, assemble, and associate on behalf of self-determination for the Sahrawi people and on behalf of their human rights. We found that Moroccan authorities repress this right through laws penalizing affronts to Morocco's 'territorial integrity,' through arbitrary arrests, unfair trials, restrictions on associations and assemblies, and through police violence and harassment that goes unpunished. For the refugee camps in Tindouf, the focus is freedom of expression and of movement. We found that at the present time, the Polisario effectively marginalizes those who directly challenge its leadership or general political orientation, but it does not imprison them. It allows residents to criticize its day-to-day administration of camp affairs. In practice, camp residents are able to leave the camps, via Mauritania, if they wish to do so. However, fear and social pressure keeps those who plan to resettle in Western Sahara from disclosing their plans before leaving"--P. 2 (2nd group).
Download or read book Off the Radar written by Brahim Elansari and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly four decades since Morocco's invasion of Western Sahara, thousands of Sahrawi refugees have lived in camps run by the Polisario Front deep in the Algerian desert. Based on first-hand research, Off the Radar: Human Rights in the Tindouf Refugee Camps, examines conditions in the camps, which outside human rights observers seldom visit. Human Rights Watch found no cases of persons imprisoned for their political views. However, the report documents the cases of some individuals who encountered harassment for openly criticizing the Polisario. Human Rights Watch also found that a recent decree transferring drug offenses to the jurisdiction of Polisario military courts has undermined the rights of suspects in such cases, some of whom have been held in custody for many months without a valid judicial order. The report found no evidence that the Polisario Front imposes arbitrary restrictions on the freedom of refugees to leave the camps, including to return permanently or temporarily to Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara. However, the report does document the persistence, in isolated cases, of certain forms of slavery. In order to enhance human rights protections for the Sahrawi people, Human Rights Watch recommends that the U.N. Security Council enlarge the mandate of the MINURSO peacekeeping mission to include human rights monitoring both in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara and the Tindouf refugee camps, or establish an alternative regular mechanism to monitor and report on conditions. -- back cover.
Download or read book War and Refugees written by Richard I. Lawless and published by Burns & Oates. This book was released on 1987 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Western Sahara written by Damien Kingsbury and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-02 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Spanish were preparing to leave colonized Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco invaded, sparking a war with the Western Saharan Polisario Front. About 70% of Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco, which stations up to 140,000 soldiers in the territory, primarily along a 1700 kilometre long sand berm that is protected by one of the world’s largest fields of landmines. In 1991, Morocco and the Polisario Front agreed to a truce ahead of a referendum on Western Sahara’s future. However, Morocco has since refused to allow the referendum to take place, and has begun the extensive exploitation of Western Sahara’s non-renewable natural resources. This has both highlighted the plight of the Saharawi people who live in refugee camps in Algeria and in occupied Western Sahara, and pushed the Polisario Front back to a position where it is openly canvassing for a return to war. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Change, Peace and Security.
Download or read book Silent Territory written by Fredrik Laurin and published by Lars Schmidt Fredrik Laurin. This book was released on 2015-02-04 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: IT'S AFRICAS LAST COLONY - BUT NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT • On a Saharan desert strip lies a country of enormous natural riches, but whose inhabitants are destitute. Western Sahara has been torn apart by close to forty years of war, occupation and international power struggles. Half of the population lives in Algerian refugee camps. But the world turns a blind eye. The forgotten conflict is closely linked to all of us - we literally have it in our bodies. Western companies buy Sahrawi phosphate, fish and fruit from the Moroccan occupiers, in breach of UN resolutions. • Investigative reporters Fredrik Laurin and Lars Schmidt have visited refugee camps and presidential palaces, met with activists and the UN-envoy, and travelled through endless deserts in search of answers. They show how a small elite controls both the fishing and vegetable industries, and how Swedish and international companies are deeply involved in the exploitation of Western Sahara. Using isotope analysis, they follow the phosphate from the Bou Craa mine to the aisles of our supermarkets. • Will the Sahrawis ever get their freedom? Or are those who profiteer from the occupation too powerful?
Download or read book Western Sahara written by Fatemeh Ziai and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Global Regional and Local Dimensions of Western Sahara s Protracted Decolonization written by Raquel Ojeda-Garcia and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the traces of the passage of time on the protracted and intractable conflict of Western Sahara. The authors offer a multilevel analysis of recent developments from the global to the local scenes, including the collapse of the architecture of the UN-led conflict resolution process, the advent of the War on Terror to the the Sahara-Sahel area and the impact of the ‘Arab Spring’ and growing regional security instability. Special attention is devoted to changes in the Western Sahara territory annexed by Morocco and the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria. Morocco has adapted its governance and public policies to profound socio-demographic transformations in the territory under its control and has attempted to obtain international recognition for this annexation by proposing an Autonomy Plan. The Polisario Front and Sahrawi nationalists have shifted their strategy and pushed the centre of gravity of the conflict back inwards by focusing on pro-independence activism inside the disputed territory.
Download or read book Perspectives on Western Sahara written by Anouar Boukhars and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013-12-18 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ongoing conflict in Western Sahara is one of the more intractable legacies of European colonization in North Africa. Following the withdrawal of Spain, this territorial dispute escalated in 1975 into a war of independence between the Sahrawi people of the Polisario Front, who were backed by Algeria, and the states of Mauritania and Morocco. In 1976, the Polisario Front established the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which was not admitted in the UN but won recognition by a few states. After multiple peace efforts, the conflict reemerged in 2005 as the “independence Intifada.” Today, the Polisario Front controls about 20% of Western Sahara. At the heart of the conflict lie geopolitical interests and incompatible claims aggravated by the use of military force and decades of mostly unproductive diplomatic maneuvers by international bodies and regional or foreign powers. This thorough, impartial survey brings together some of the best experts on the Sahara question to provide a broad-based analysis of the problem, from a range of perspectives. Featuring new research, the chapters examine the roots of the conflict, its dynamics, and potential solutions. This groundbreaking text also addresses questions of law, human rights, natural resources from an analytical point of view. Contributed by scholars from North Africa, Europe, and the U.S., it is an essential contribution to the literature of Middle East and African studies.
Download or read book Getting to Yes written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations. Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sovereignty in Exile written by Alice Wilson and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sovereignty in Exile explores sovereignty and state power through the case of a liberation movement that set out to make itself into a state. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was founded by the Polisario Front in the wake of Spain's abandonment of its former colony, the disputed Western Sahara. Morocco laid claim to the same territory, and the conflict has locked Polisario and Morocco in a political stalemate that has lasted forty years. Complicating the situation is the fact that Polisario conducts its day-to-day operations in refugee camps near Tindouf, in Algeria, which house most of the Sahrawi exile community. SADR (a partially recognized state) and Polisario (Western Sahara's liberation movement) together form an unusual governing authority, originally premised on the dismantling of a perceived threat to national (Sahrawi) unity: tribes. Drawing on unprecedented long-term research gained by living with Sahrawi refugee families, Alice Wilson examines how tribal social relations are undermined, recycled, and have reemerged as the refugee community negotiates governance, resolves disputes, manages social inequalities, and improvises alternatives to taxation. Wilson trains an ethnographic lens on the creation of administrative categories, legal reforms, aid distribution, marriage practices, local markets, and contested elections within the camps. Tracing social, political, and economic changes among Sahrawi refugees, Sovereignty in Exile reveals the dynamics of a postcolonial liberation movement that has endured for decades in the deserts of North Africa while trying to bring about the revolutionary transformation of a society which identifies with a Bedouin past.
Download or read book Western Sahara written by Stephen Zunes and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-04 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Western Sahara conflict has proven to be one of the most protracted and intractable struggles facing the international community. Pitting local nationalist determination against Moroccan territorial ambitions, the dispute is further complicated by regional tensions with Algeria and the geo-strategic concerns of major global players, including the United States, France, and the territory’s former colonial ruler, Spain. Since the early 1990s, the UN Security Council has failed to find a formula that will delicately balance these interests against Western Sahara’s long-denied right to a self-determination referendum as one of the last UN-recognized colonies. The widely-lauded first edition was the first book-length treatment of the issue in the previous two decades. Zunes and Mundy examined the origins, evolution, and resilience of the Western Sahara conflict, deploying a diverse array of sources and firsthand knowledge of the region gained from multiple research visits. Shifting geographical frames—local, regional, and international—provided for a robust analysis of the stakes involved. With the renewal of the armed conflict, continued diplomatic stalemate, growing waves of nonviolent resistance in the occupied territory, and the recent U.S. recognition of Morocco’s annexation, this new revised and expanded paperback edition brings us up-to-date on a long-forgotten conflict that is finally capturing the world’s attention.
Download or read book Western Sahara written by Stephen Zunes and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-14 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Western Sahara conflict has proven to be one of the most protracted and intractable struggles facing the international community. Pitting local nationalist determination against Moroccan territorial ambitions, the dispute is further complicated by regional tensions with Algeria and the geo-strategic concerns of major global players, including the United States, France, and the territory’s former colonial ruler, Spain. Since the early 1990s, the UN Security Council has failed to find a formula that will delicately balance these interests against Western Sahara’s long-denied right to a self-determination referendum as one of the last UN-recognized colonies. The widely-lauded first edition was the first book-length treatment of the issue in the previous two decades. Zunes and Mundy examined the origins, evolution, and resilience of the Western Sahara conflict, deploying a diverse array of sources and firsthand knowledge of the region gained from multiple research visits. Shifting geographical frames—local, regional, and international—provided for a robust analysis of the stakes involved. With the renewal of the armed conflict, continued diplomatic stalemate, growing waves of nonviolent resistance in the occupied territory, and the recent U.S. recognition of Morocco’s annexation, this new revised and expanded paperback edition brings us up-to-date on a long-forgotten conflict that is finally capturing the world’s attention.
Download or read book The Sahrawis of Western Sahara written by and published by Minority Rights Group. This book was released on 1984-01-01 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sahrawi people is fighting for its survival, working to reverse the illegal sale of its territory, in 1975, by the previous colonial power, Spain, to Morocco and Mauritania. The new forces of occupation are opposed by the Algerian-backed Sahrawi army. The greater part of the Sahrawi civilian population has fled to refugee camps in Algeria, and the rest are in the war zone – each group living in conditions of extreme hardship. The Sahrawi case has the support of major international and humanitarian agencies. Nevertheless, the course of events has depended less on justice for a suffering people than on enmities and calculating a political interplay of several nations with ideological and economic interests in the territory. Please note that the terminology in the fields of minority rights and indigenous peoples’ rights has changed over time. MRG strives to reflect these changes as well as respect the right to self-identification on the part of minorities and indigenous peoples. At the same time, after over 50 years’ work, we know that our archive is of considerable interest to activists and researchers. Therefore, we make available as much of our back catalogue as possible, while being aware that the language used may not reflect current thinking on these issues.
Download or read book Advocating International Recognition of Moroccan Sovereignty over Western Sahara written by Yasser Harrak Srifi and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2023-06-09 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master's Thesis from the year 2023 in the subject Politics - Topic: International relations, grade: A, American Public University System (School of Security and Globan Studies), language: English, abstract: In spite of the considerable amount of research that has been conducted on the question of Western Sahara, misconceptions about this protracted conflict still abound. Using a constructivist approach, this qualitative study addresses crucial themes that have been overlooked in previous literature. It provides insights into the academic and political marginalization of the Sahrawi people in the Algerian Sahara and beyond, particularly in relation to their exclusion from the self-determination discourse. By advocating for the international community to recognize the Moroccanness of Western Sahara, this study emphasizes the significance of the historical and present ties between the Sahrawi people and Morocco. It examines the humanitarian conditions in the Polisario Front camps, raises questions of accountability, and evaluates the feasibility of the Moroccan autonomy plan. Furthermore, it highlights the potential risks associated with the creation of a failed Polisario state.
Download or read book Introduction to Western Sahara written by Gilad James, PhD and published by Gilad James Mystery School. This book was released on with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western Sahara is a disputed territory located in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, and Mauritania to the east and south. The territory was colonized by Spain in the late 19th century and was known as Spanish Sahara until the 1970s. After Spain withdrew in 1975, Morocco and Mauritania claimed the territory as their own, sparking a war that lasted until 1991. Today, Morocco administers most of the territory, while the Polisario Front, a separatist group backed by Algeria, controls the remaining areas. The United Nations has been involved in the conflict since the 1990s, attempting to negotiate a peaceful settlement between the two parties. The population of Western Sahara is estimated to be around 600,000, with most living in areas controlled by Morocco. The majority of the population are Sahrawis, an indigenous group that has been fighting for independence from Moroccan rule. The dispute over the territory's sovereignty has been ongoing for decades, with the Polisario Front calling for a referendum to determine the territory's fate. However, Morocco has rejected the proposal, stating that the territory is an integral part of their kingdom. The conflict has resulted in displacement of thousands, as well as human rights abuses and restrictions on freedom of expression.
Download or read book The Western Sahara Conflict written by Pedro Pinto Leite and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nomads and Nation Building in the Western Sahara written by Konstantina Isidoros and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-03-30 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fabled for more than three thousand years as fierce warrior-nomads and cameleers dominating the western Trans-Saharan caravan trade, today the Sahrawi are admired as soldier-statesmen and refugee-diplomats. This is a proud nomadic people uniquely championing human rights and international law for self-determination of their ancient heartlands: the western Sahara Desert in North Africa. Konstantina Isidoros provides a rich ethnographic portrait of this unique desert society's life in one of Earth's most extreme ecosystems. Her extensive anthropological research, conducted over nine years, illuminates an Arab-Berber Muslim society in which men wear full face veils and are matrifocused toward women, who are the property-holders of tent households forming powerful matrilocal coalitions. Isidoros offers new analytical insights on gender relations, strategic tribe-to-state symbiosis and the tactical formation of 'tent-cities'. The book sheds light on the indigenous principles of social organisation - the centrality of women, male veiling and milk-kinship - bringing positive feminist perspectives on how the Sahrawi have innovatively reconfigured their tribal nomadic pastoral society into globalising citizen-nomads constructing their nascent nation-state. This is essential reading for those interested in anthropology, politics, war and nationalism, gender relations, postcolonialism, international development, humanitarian regimes, refugee studies and the experience of nomadic communities.
