Communiqué on the Conference on Multilateralism and International Law with Western Sahara as case study Hosted by the South African Department of Foreign Affairs and the University of Pretoria, 4 and 5 December 2008.
See more details about the conference itself here.
No less than 426 organisations signed a petition letter, demanding from the EU Commission that occupied Western Sahara be kept clearly outside of the so- called Advanced Status cooperation that Morocco currently is being granted. The petition was sent to the EU Commission this morning. PRESS RELEASE.
On December 5th 2008, a petition letter signed by 426 organisations was sent to the EU commission demanding that occupied Western Sahara be kept outside of the Morocco-EU socalled Advanced Status cooperation. Do you wish your organisation had signed, but did not make the deadline?
In an extraordinary show of arrogance and disdain for representatives of civil society organizations, the Washington based law firm Covington & Burling flatly refuses to engage with the global solidarity network Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) and this year's Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award laureate, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar. The US law firm is, because of a legal analysis it provided, the source the world phosphate industry refers to when they claim the phosphate trade from Western Sahara to be legal.
The talks of granting a so-called Advanced Status to Morocco are getting ever more concrete. But to this day, the EU and Morocco have still avoided stating whether or not occupied Western Sahara should be involved in the cooperation. “There is an elephant walking around in the negotiations room, which no one wants to see or mention”, said WSRW in press release today. Read press release and letter to the EU here.
Florida fertilizer company Mosaic Co. has received another vessel of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara, in violation of international law. Western Sahara Resource Watch section Florida has urged the company to stop its imports. Read letter here.
German former MEP, and former leader of the Western Sahara solidarity network at the European Parliament, Margot Keßler, has this week sent a letter to the Belgian branch of the German chemical company BASF. In the letter, Mrs. Keßler asks for a clarification on a series of questions regarding BASF's imports of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara.
What role does human rights play in the European Neighbourhood Policy? A thesis by Linde Lindqvist Gustavsson at Lund University, Sweden (2007), suggests that human rights issues might fall short when in dispute with Europe\'s self interest. The author compares the cases of Morocco and Turkey.
A Hong Kong company is linked to Morocco\'s brutal exploitation of Western Sahara. South China Morning Post, 10 August 2008.
Copenhagen (DanWatch) - Denmark is joining an increasing number of governments with official policies against trade in non-renewable resources from Western Sahara. The Danish position echoes the non-trade policies of fellow Scandinavian governments Sweden and Norway. Danwatch, 17 July 2008.