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Media
- Press Release: Secretary Clinton Reaffirms US Policy on Western Sahara in Support of Moroccan Autono Nov 03 2009
CONTACT: Calvin Dark
202-587-0855
For Immediate Release: June 20, 2008
Secretary Clinton Reaffirms US Policy on Western Sahara in Support of Moroccan Autonomy Solution
Washington, DC (Nov. 3) – Speaking in Marrakech Monday at a press conference with Moroccan Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri, following a meeting with King Mohammed VI, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reaffirmed the current US policy on resolving the Western Sahara conflict—that autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only realistic solution for ending the more than 30-year dispute. "It is important for me to reaffirm, here in Morocco, that there has been no change in our policy," said Clinton responding to a question as to whether the Obama Administration stands by the US position supporting Morocco’s autonomy plan in the Sahara.
“It is a plan, as you know, that was started under the Clinton Administration. It was reaffirmed under the Bush Administration and remains the policy of the United States under the Obama Administration,” Secretary Clinton said in an interview with the Maghreb Arab Press on Tuesday. “In view of our long-standing relationship, we are very aware that the circumstances are difficult. I do not want there to be any doubt, in the region or elsewhere, regarding our policy, which remains unchanged.”
Foreign Minister Fassi Fihri thanked Clinton and noted that “our [Morocco-US] relations have continued to grow… today we stand ready to give it further impetus so as to deepen and strengthen our partnership and to give a new dimension to our strategic political dialogue between Rabat and Washington.”
“We are very pleased to see Secretary Clinton’s remarks reaffirming for the first time in public on behalf of the Obama Administration what has been a consistent and constructive US policy to resolve the Western Sahara dispute,” said Robert Holley, Executive Director, Moroccan American Center for Policy. “That policy also enjoys continued bi-partisan majority support in the US Congress.” Holley continued, “A broad internationally acceptable autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only realistic solution for ending the Western Sahara conflict.”
Clinton was in Marrakesh for the sixth ministerial meeting of the Forum for the Future, a developing/industrialized nations’ initiative to advance regional security, economic development, religious tolerance, and social reforms.
The UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for the Western Sahara, US Ambassador Christopher Ross is currently working on a possible fifth round of negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front, with the participation of neighboring countries Algeria and Mauritania in an ongoing effort to end the conflict.
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The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For more, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org
This material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.
FINAL_PR_ClintonReaffirmsWS3Nov09.pdf
- Press Release: Jeff Fahey and USCRI Ask Congress to End Refugee Warehousing Oct 29 2009
CONTACT: Calvin Dark
202-587-0855
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Jeff Fahey and USCRI Ask Congress to End Refugee Warehousing
New USCRI report, “Stonewalling on Refugee Rights,” documents Sahrawi refugee rights abuse in Algeria
Washington, DC, Oct. 29 – “Being a refugee shouldn’t be a life sentence—but that’s exactly what it’s become for millions of refugees who have been confined to camps and denied their freedom, some for 30 years,” said LOST cast member & international advocate Jeff Fahey. On Tuesday he went to Capitol Hill with the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and former US Ambassador Michael Usseryto meet Members of Congress and the press to urge an end to the inhumane practice of warehousing refugees. Of nearly 14 million refugees worldwide, 8.5 million have been warehoused and denied their basic rights for a decade or more despite guarantees in the 1951 Refugee Convention—which include the right to move about freely, work, receive documentation, and choose a place of residence.
“Unfortunately,” said Fahey, “these refugees have been forgotten and ignored by the very international organizations established to look out for their most basic rights and ensure their welfare.”
Fahey and Ussery were joined by USCRI’s Lavinia Limón, president and CEO, at a briefing hosted by the co-chairs of the Bipartisan Congressional Refugee Caucus. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) joined a press briefing to voice his support for the campaign to end refugee warehousing. USCRI released a letter to donor countries from Thai civil society asking for rights-based alternatives, and a new report: “Stonewalling on Refugee Rights, Algeria and The Sahrawi,” interviewing refugees who recently escaped the abuse that tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees endure in the Tindouf camps in Algeria.
On September 10, the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, made the first visit by a UNHCR head to the Tindouf camps in Algeria since 1976 and noted, “I recognize that not enough has been done and that the international community should wake up… we have to work more and better.” Jeff Fahey said he was pleased the UN High Commissioner visited the camps and was recommending steps to help the refugees. “But he needs to do more. A 2nd and 3rd generation of children are being born into the hopelessness of these camps.”
“From Thailand to Kenya to Algeria, these refugees have been confined to camps and forced to subsist on meager rations for 5, 15, 30 years or more,” saidLavinia Limón. It’s an appalling way to treat human beings. It’s a terrible way to spend US tax dollars and aid from other donor nations. Resources would be much better spent helping refugees rebuild their lives, not ensuring they remain refugees the rest of their lives.”
“The real enemy of Sahrawi refugees is not the desert, however hot the sun and sand are,”said Ussery. “They are victims of a perfect storm: a blind eye and neglect by UNHCR; restrictive policies by Algeria which denies the consequences of its actions while enabling the Polisario; and a non-transparent Polisario Front ruling entity that abuses the rights and controls their day-to-day lives of refugees, who are confined to the camps, forced to take handouts, and unable to make a better life for themselves.”
Among the group’s recommendations to end the abuses of warehousing & improve refugees’ lives:
1. Establish a program in the camps allowing refugees who want to return to their homes or go elsewhere to do so without intimidation, without being arrested, and without being abused by the security forces.
2. Conduct a census to ensure an accurate count and provide documentation for free movement and travel.
3. Establish in-camp UNHCR presence to monitor aid distribution & prevent widespread hijacking & misuse.
4. Implement durable, rights- and community-based solutions to help refugees resettle, rebuild their lives.
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The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For more, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org.
This material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC
PR_Jeff FaheyUSCRI Event29Oct09FINALwPhoto.pdf
- Press Release: New Report Documents Abuse of Sahrawi Refugees’ Rights in Algeria Camps Oct 08 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, October 13, 2009
New Report Documents Abuse of Sahrawi Refugees' Rights in Algeria Camps
Forgotten or Forsaken? UN refugee chief says international community needs to “wake up” to plight of refugees stranded in desert for decades in “precarious conditions”
Washington, DC (October 13)—Only weeks after news reports citing the UN’s refugee chief saying tens of thousands of refugees had been “forgotten” in remote desert camps in Algeria, a new study, “Group Rights & International Law: Case Study of the Sahrawi Refugees in Algeria” published by the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies located at the International Law Institute tells the disturbing story of why. The study documents a serious human rights and humanitarian crisis resulting from more than three decades of warehousing of Sahrawi refugees confined to desert camps near Tindouf, in southwestern Algeria, where their legal rights and freedoms have been “routinely” violated, humanitarian aid hijacked, families split, and futures denied with no end in sight to serve a failed political agenda.
Perhaps most troubling, the study finds that both the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and relief agencies established to protect refugee rights have ignored the situation in the Algerian camps and perpetuated the abuse of refugees’ rights under international law.
“I recognize that not enough has been done and that the international community should wake up…we have to work more and better," acknowledged António Guterres on Sept. 10, making the first visit by a UNHCR head to the camps in Tindouf, Algeria since 1976. “These refugees are living for tens of years in precarious conditions.”
“The International Law Institute believes the situation of the Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, and their rights under international law, is in urgent need of consideration by the rest of the world,” said Don Wallace, Jr., Chairman, International Law Institute in a preface to the report. “It is our hope this report will prompt concerted action among all nations and stakeholders involved, together with the UN and other international organizations, to resolve the decades-old situation of the Sahrawi refugees, and improve their circumstances through instruments of international law.”
Key Findings and Recommendations: Respect for Sahrawi Refugee Rights Under International Law
The report examines the role international law can play in helping refugees regain their freedom and makes specific recommendations to improve their lives and protect their rights. Among its key findings:
* Refugee Rights Routinely Violated—“Sahrawi refugees have substantial rights under international law that are either routinely violated or routinely ignored by the Polisario Front, Algeria, and UNHCR,” the report says. Among these are: the right to be documented, the right to freedom of movement and employment, the right to adequate health care and education, and the right to access legal protections in the host country’s judicial system.
* Freedom of Movement Denied—“Despite Polisario claims to the contrary, Sahrawi refugees’ freedom of movement is severely restricted,” the report says. “In 2003, Amnesty International expressed grave concern about the denial of the refugees’ right to freedom of movement by Algerian and Polisario authorities,” an issue also confirmed in the 2008 World Refugee Report of the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
* UNHCR Failed to Protect Refugee Rights, Prevent Hijacking of Humanitarian Aid— The report points to various official UN agency reports and findings of independent relief organizations documenting systematic theft of humanitarian aid intended for the refugees but instead sold on black markets in the region for personal profit.
* Imperative Refugee Rights be Respected, Warehousing Ended—“Over the past 30 years, facts and realities on the ground have changed, while UNHCR’s and Algeria’s policies on refugees have not. The international system has done little to protect these warehoused refugees’ rights in what has become one of the longest encamped refugee situations in the world. It is legally, morally, and financially imperative Sahrawi refugees in Algeria be granted all their rights under international law so they don’t stay warehoused another 30 years,” the report concludes.
Recommended specific steps for UNHCR and interested states to protect refugee rights and improve their lives include:
1. Conduct a census of the camp population and document the refugees,
2. Establish an intimidation-free voluntary repatriation program in the camps, and
3. Ensure a permanent international NGO presence in the camps to monitor distribution of humanitarian aid.
“The freedom and rights of the Sahrawi refugees have been denied and their futures stolen,” said Robert M. Holley, Executive Director, Moroccan American Center for Policy, which authored the report in cooperation with the IUCLS. “Thirty years is long enough. We need to open the camps and help these people take back their future. We should help refugees rebuild their lives, not make being a refugee a way of life.”
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Inter-University Center for Legal Studies: In 1997, the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies was established to contribute to the global effort to deal with the broad range of topics including: human rights, ethnic, racial, and religious intolerance and violence, terrorismand war crimes. The purpose of the IUCLS is to focus on the relationship between the rule of law and various issues, monitor current and future threats to peace and security, develop response strategies, and keep effective communication between many organizations. IUCLS is a consortium of universities and has a presence as a think tank in over 35 countries. For more, please visit www.ili.org/IUCLS.
The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For more, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org.
This material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy and Beckerman Public Relations on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.
PR_RefugeeRightsPaper8Oct09FINAL.pdf
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