CODESA Condemns the "Continuous Persecution" of Sahrawi Women by the Moroccan Occupier

The Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara (CODESA) condemns the "continuous persecution" of Sahrawi women by the Moroccan occupier for defending the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination, urging the international community to open an international investigation into "the abuses they have suffered and continue to suffer."

In a statement released to mark International Women's Day, CODESA notes that Sahrawi women have endured decades of "various serious human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity" committed by the Moroccan occupier. The collective cited "extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, abductions, rapes, torture, political detentions, [and] unfair trials," as well as the deprivation of other rights guaranteed by international humanitarian and human rights law.

"Many Sahrawi women are also victims of various forms of gender-based violence, including rape and sexual harassment used as a form of punishment and reprisal, as well as smear and denigration campaigns due to their human rights activism and support for the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination," the statement added.

The collective demands that the UN, human rights groups, and women's organizations urgently intervene to support Sahrawi women and work toward "the opening of an international investigation into the abuses they have suffered and continue to suffer," within the context of the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.

According to the human rights organization, many Sahrawi women who fell victim to these crimes and violations were only recently able to testify about the violence they endured. This delay was due to the "military, police, and media blockade imposed on the occupied part of Western Sahara, despite the presence since 1991 of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)."

In this regard, CODESA calls on the international community to "act urgently" in order to "complete the decolonization process of Western Sahara, clarify the fate of missing Sahrawis, and work toward the release of all Sahrawi political prisoners" held in Moroccan jails.