Tomorrow, Wednesday 7 March at 11.30, the Norwegian Section of Amnesty International, the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara and the Human Rights House Foundation co-host an open meeting at the Human Rights House in Oslo, with the well-known Saharawi human rights defender Aminatou Haidar, right. (06-MAR-07)
This article is written by HRHF / Niels Jacob Harbitz.
To view the full invitation, in Norwegian, click here .
As one of the most vocal spokespersons for self-determination for Western Sahara, Haidar has been imprisoned on numerous occasions, and subjected to persecution and harassment, mistreatment and torture, purely on the basis of the Moroccon authorities´ dislike of her opinions, and the fact that she makes use of her basic human right to express them. Altogether, Haidar has spent four years in prison, and was last released in January 2006. Due to her courage and determination, she has become a focal point and a central driving force for the non-violent opposition to the Moroccan occupation. Her work currently concentrates on having as many West Saharan political prisoners and prisoners of conscience as possible released, and to uncover the truth aboutthe more than 500 ´disappearances´ of Saharawis that have taken place during the Moroccan occupation. Above, Haidar greeting fellow Saharawis after one of her releases from prison, this one in 2004 .
In addition to Haidar, Ann-Christin Johnsgård, Norwegian Amnesty´s Country coordinator for Morocco and Western Sahara and Ronny Hansen, Director of the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara, will speak. The meeting will be chaired by Niels Jacob Harbitz, Programme Coordinator for Africa at HRHF.
For further background information, look up the below articles:
Amnesty International´s background brief to their appeal of November 2005 .
Aminatou Haidar´s testimony about the time when she was among the ´disappeared´ .
On the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara´s own website, there are two background articles, in Norwegian, on Haidar. Click for
Interview with Aminatou Haidar (October 2006)
Aminatou comes to Norway (February 2007).
Finally, the Nordic edition of Le Monde Diplomatique has alerted www.humanrightshouse.org to an article they published, in Norwegian, on the predicament of Western Sahara, early 2006.
