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The Alliance of Sahrawi NGOs is actively participating in the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, taking place in Geneva from June 15 to July 7. On Tuesday, June 23, a delegation from the coalition engaged in discussions with the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
These meetings were a platform to condemn «structures of oppression that exploit human vulnerability for political and military aims, especially in the Tindouf camps», explained Abdelouahab El Gaïne, president of Africa Watch and a member of the Alliance, to Yabiladi.
«We provided international experts with a comprehensive report illustrating the inherent and systematic connection between impoverishment strategies in the Tindouf camps and the militarization of children. Denying economic and social rights is not merely a byproduct of poverty, but a deliberate tool of coercion to force families into sending their children for forced recruitment.»
Specific cases of violations brought to light
The NGO leader emphasized the urgency of bolstering international accountability mechanisms. «We informed the two Special Rapporteurs that the era of cautious diplomatic niceties is over. With the Geneva Declaration, the global community now holds a clear legal framework to prosecute those responsible for child abductions and their militarization in conflicts», El Gaïne stated.
These meetings were a part of the international symposium on «Stolen Childhood in Africa» and the adoption of the «Geneva Declaration on Stolen Childhood in Africa», conducted last week in Geneva. «The event sends a strong message against the impunity enjoyed by the Polisario Front, with blatant complicity from Algeria», he stressed.
The Alliance delegation, including Abdelouahab El Gaïne and Ms. Mina Laghzal, presented the rapporteurs with detailed accounts of human rights abuses in the Tindouf camps.
Among the highlighted cases were Mahmouda Ahmida Said, who suffered arbitrary arrest and confiscation of his property; young Manouta Afdhili, engaged in a legal fight to locate her father, abducted by drug trafficking networks operating under the Polisario's cover; and Nouha Mint Mohamed Ihdih, detained and barred from reuniting with her mother, a cancer patient in France.
«While immediate results from these meetings with UN rapporteurs are not expected, we resolved to deliver this message: the Tindouf camps must not remain a lawless region.»
El Gaïne concluded with firm resolve: «We will persist in utilizing all United Nations mechanisms to move from documentation to criminal prosecution and judicial reparations.»
