UN Experts Voice Concern Over Detention of Sahrawi Rights Defender
UN special rapporteurs have raised concern over the harsh detention conditions of Sahrawi human rights defender El Hussein Amaadour and over the mistreatment and threats faced by his sister, Soukaina Amaadour, during a prison visit.
“We express our concern about the allegations of severe detention conditions of Al-Hussein Al-Bashir Ibrahim (El Hussein Amaadour), including his continued placement in a prison far from his family home,” the experts said in a joint communication to Morocco.
The statement was signed by Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right to health, and Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.
They also expressed alarm at the treatment of Soukaina Amaadour, who said she had been subjected to a degrading body search by two prison employees and threatened with being denied visits, while also enduring racist and defamatory verbal abuse.
The experts warned that if confirmed, the allegations would contravene Morocco’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it ratified in 1979, notably Article 7 prohibiting inhuman or degrading treatment and Article 12 guaranteeing the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
They further stressed that the alleged acts would also breach the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules.
The rapporteurs asked Morocco to explain why requests by Amaadour to be transferred closer to his family had been refused, why he was being held in poor conditions without adequate medical care, and why his sister had been subjected to humiliating treatment.
UN experts voiced broader concern that the case illustrates the “criminalization of human rights defenders” because of Amaadour’s peaceful advocacy for Sahrawi students’ rights and the right to self-determination in Western Sahara.
Amaadour, a former leader of a Sahrawi student movement at Agadir University, has defended both students’ rights and Sahrawi self-determination. His case was highlighted in a 2021 report to the UN General Assembly on the long-term detention of human rights defenders.
In November 2024, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found his detention arbitrary and contrary to international law, calling for his immediate release and compensation.
