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The UN Human Rights Council held its 44th session from June 30 to July 17. An edition marked, like the previous ones, by the war between Morocco, Algeria and the Polisario on the human rights situation in the Sahara.
As during the works of the Fourth Commission, the Kingdom's opponents have invited international NGOs to defend their position. In particular, they appealed to French associations, such as the Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples (MRAP) and France Libertés. On the other hand, Rabat once again relied on local NGOs.
Thus, 925 NGOs operating in the biggest cities of the Sahara addressed a letter to the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet. In their address, they rejected all the accusations brought against Morocco by parties close to the narrative engaged by Algeria and the Polisario.
An effective card
The letter particularly drew the attention of the former president of Chile regarding the cases of Sahrawis who, with their Moroccan passports, come to Geneva every year to promote the positions of the Front during the sessions of the UN CDH. These same persons would, once their missions complete, return to Morocco without being prosecuted by the local authorities for their pro-Polisario activism.
Two weeks ago, Rabat appealed to Sidi Hamdi Ould Errachid and Ynja Khattat, respectively presidents of the Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab regions, to denounce in a letter intended for Bachelet«the misleading propaganda conveyed by Algeria and the Polisario to deprive the inhabitants of the two regions from the benefits of development projects».
These messages confirm that the Kingdom continues to rely on Sahrawis when responding to the Front and to Algeria. In the midst of a debate in the European Parliament on the draft fishing agreement between Morocco and the European Union, 331 elected representatives from the Dakhla Oued Ed-Dahab region and 548 from Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra had called, in January 2019, in a petition, MEPs for the «renewal» of trade agreements between Rabat and Brussels.
The Kingdom has started to play the Saharawi card since the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in December 2016, recommending that the EU exclude the territory of Western Sahara from any draft agreement with Rabat.
A strategy observed both during the two rounds of the «Geneva Round Table», in December 2018 and March 2019 initiated by the UN, as well as during the negotiations which made it possible to circumvent the verdict of the CJEU and to integrate products originating from the Southern provinces in agricultural and fishing agreements.
