Western Sahara and Advocacy Work

: Saharawi refugee camps close to Tindouf, Algeria, where 165 000 Sahrawi live since 35 years and wait vor their return to the Moroccan occupied Western Sahara

Advocacy work in conjunction with development policy means the effort to bring the interests and requests of people in developing countries to bear within decision making processes in the so called “North”- such as in Austria or at EU level.

Since many years, GEZA gets involved with the population of Western Sahara. Since the occupation of Western Sahara trough Morocco in violation of international law, a part of the population of Western Sahara lives under precarious conditions in Algerian refugee camps. Another part lives in the occupied territories under the rule of Morocco where Saharawis consistently become victims of crude violations of human rights.

In view of the dramatic human rights situation in the Moroccan occupied territories, GEZA advocates the extension of the mandate of the UN mission MINURSO and the establishment of an institutional framework for the observation and protection of human rights. Furthermore, GEZA supports the Saharawi in their claim for the right of self- determination which they had been assured of in more than 100 resolutions by the United Nations. To date, it remains refused to them.

Information for the advocacy work of GEZA in the name of Western Sahara (in German only):