Latest

Aminatou Haidar, right, is to be presented with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for her campaign on behalf of the self-determination of Western Sahara and against government abuses and disappearances of prisoners of conscious. The ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C the morning of November 13th, in the Russell Senate Office Building´s Caucus Room. (16-SEP-08)
 

Yesterday, the Association of Saharawis in Norway and the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara (NSCWS) jointly reported the Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara to the police for breaking the Norwegian Penal Act’s paragraph 317, on dealing in stolen goods. Yara has imported 16.800 tons of phosphate from Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco. The state owned company has paid Moroccan authorities for the phosphate, knowing full well that, as an occupier, it does not belong to Morocco, but is instead to be considered stolen goods. (30-AUG-08)
 

The Rafto Foundation in association with the Bergen Summer Research School is holding a roundtable between activists, academics and policymakers on 10 August. Poverty and human rights violations are the issues to be addressed. Special attention will be given to the particular case-study of the “untouchables” or Dalits in India to illustrate how human rights violations can be directly connected to people being stuck in poverty. (05-AUG-08)
 

The third “Norwegian” shipping company in half a year says it will no longer visit ports in occupied Western Sahara. Jinhui Shipping, registered on Oslo Stock Exchange, says to South the People´s Republic of China Morning Post that it will not contract any more business in the country. (05-JUNE-08)
 

The Norwegian shipping company R-Bulk apologizes that one of their vessels has transported phosphates from Western Sahara, and say they will do their utmost to prevent it from happening again. The company is praised for its good corporate social responsibility. On Friday 30th, it was revealed that the Norwegian shipping company R-Bulk has been involved in transporting 15.000 tonnes of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara to Colombia. The shipment was done on the vessel ‘Radiance’ in middle of April. (01-JUNE-08)
 

In April this year, a vessel belonging to the Norwegian ship owner company R-Bulk, transported 15.000 tonnes of phosphate from occupied Western Sahara to Colombia. The Norwegian trade union Industry and Energy, as well as the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara and Western Sahara Resource Watch today protests the shipment. The phosphate industry in the occupied country takes place in violation of international law. (30-MAY-08) 
 

On 17 May, Moroccan police threw Elwali Alkadimi, right, out from the third floor of a building. According to his family, Alkadimi broke his neck and is in urgent need of surgery. His family fears that he may end up paralysed and crippled from the injuries he suffered in the fall, and medical tests have established that large parts of his body are already immobilised, as in a state of paralysis. You can help save Alkadimi by way of contributing financially to the account number below. (27-MAY-08)
 

According to press reports in Spain, the government and army of Morocco are making preparations for a military attack on the territories controlled by Western Sahara´s Polisario Front since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991. The alleged “preparations” are to be a reaction to the increased civilian activities by Polisario in its “liberated territories”. (22-MAY-08)
 

An American-Vietnamese political activist was sentenced to six months jail in a one-day trial, but he will be deported at the weekend as he had already served the time, U.S. embassy officials and his party said on Tuesday. Nguyen Quoc Quan, right, 54, an engineer from Sacramento, California, was arrested last November along with several other activists of the Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party) who were preparing to distribute leaflets opposed to one-party rule. (13-MAY-08)