A spokesman for UNFCCC told media that it has requested answer from the organisers of COP22 on why they kicked out the vice-president of the PanAfrican-Parliament.
“We are aware of the situation and are seeking clarification from the Moroccan authorities", a spokesman for UNFCCC told the news service Climate Home today.
The vice-president of the Pan-African Parliament, Suelma Beirouk, was Monday expelled from Morocco, the host of COP22. Morocco occupies Western Sahara, a territory which Mrs. Beirouk is from.
Western Sahara is a Member State of the African Union, while Morocco is not. Morocco has since 1975 occupied parts of the territory of Western Sahara.
Since 2013, it has built windmills in the territory, needed to supply energy to the plunder of the minerals. Morocco uses alleged 'sustainable' energy projects to fortify the occupation, as WSRW uncovered in the report Powering the Plunder – What Morocco and Siemens are hiding at COP22, Marrakech, published 2 November.
Morocco has not sought the consent of the people of the land to carry out such projects - a situation which the UN Human Rights Council expressed concerns about this week. Neither Morocco, nor its two partners in that sector, German company Siemens or Italian company Enel have lifted a finger to hear the opinion of the Saharawis. Nareva, the company of the Moroccan king, fails to respond to questions on human rights in a study published last week by Business and Human Rights.
Last week, hundreds of Saharawis protested against Morocco, Siemens and Enel. The last days, numerous leading activists from the occupied territory have denounced the Moroccan projects on their land.
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Morocco’s ambitions to become a global green hydrogen powerhouse are accelerating. Yet, Rabat is allocating land in a territory it does not legally own.
US eyes minerals in occupied Western Sahara
Seeking to position itself as a key supplier of strategic minerals for Western powers, Morocco has signed a new agreement with the United States that covers Western Sahara’s waters and the critical minerals harboured there.
TAQA-Moeve obtains land in occupied Western Sahara
Morocco’s push for green hydrogen has taken a decisive step forward - on territory it does not legally own.
EU-Morocco Statement: autonomy without self-determination, law without lawfulness
A joint statement that came out of last week’s EU-Morocco Association Council asks readers to believe in a fiction: that an undefined autonomy plan imposed by an occupying power can satisfy the right to self-determination, and that respect for international law can coexist with the systematic ignoring of the EU’s own highest court.