Help RFK laureate Aminatou Haidar return to Western Sahara

Appel du Centre Robert F. Kennedy pour la Justice et les Droits Humains en faveur d'Aminatou Haidar, lauréate du Prix 2008 des Droits Humains du Centre, adressé à Mme Navanethem Pillay, Haute-Commissaire aux Droits Humains des Nations Unies.
Mme Haidar a engagé une grève de la faim le 16 novembre après s'être vue refuser l'entrée au Sahara occidental par les autorités marocaines et avoir été refoulée vers les Canaries.
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November 16, 2009 -- Aminatou Haidar, the RFK Center's 2008 Human Rights Laureate, has begun a hunger strike following her forced removal from her homeland of Western Sahara.
Upon her arrival at the Laayoune airport in Western Sahara, she declared Western Sahara -- not Morocco -- as her homeland on her immigration entry form. Moroccan authorities then confiscated her passport, interrogated her overnight, declared that she had renounced her citizenship, and put her on a plane to the Canary Islands.
Join us today and call on United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay to immediately conduct an investigation into the circumstances of Aminatou's forced removal from Western Sahara and to establish a mechanism for the protection of human rights of the Saharawi people.

To: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay

Aminatou Haidar, known as the "Saharawi Ghandi" of Western Sahara for her peaceful resistance to violence, and the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Laureate, went on hunger strike November 16th in protest of her forced removal from Western Sahara. Ms. Haidar's health is in a precarious condition, bringing an added urgency to this situation. Her removal from Western Sahara also raises concerns about her being stateless.

Ms. Haidar was put on board a plane destined for Lanzarote in the Canary Islands against her will by Moroccan authorities on November 14th, 2009, after she attempted to return to Western Sahara on November 13th 2009, following her visit to the U.S.

Ms. Haidar, who is fighting for the right to self-determination for the Saharawi people of Western Sahara, declared Western Sahara and not Morocco as her country on the immigration entry form she completed prior to disembarkation at the airport in Laayoune, as she had done in the past. Moroccan authorities confiscated her Moroccan passport and kept her overnight at the airport where they interrogated her. According to Moroccan authorities, Haidar renounced her Moroccan citizenship at the airport in Laayoune. Ms. Haidar has remained in the Canary Islands and cannot leave as Spanish authorities have prevented her from leaving without a passport or travel documents.

Since the eruption of the Western Sahara conflict in 1975, when Morocco first asserted its sovereignty over the territory, there have been consistent reports of human rights violations by Morocco against the Saharawi people of Western Sahara.

In 2006, your office identified the human rights situation in the region as a "serious concern" and called for the creation of a mechanism for ensuring adequate and continuous monitoring in both occupied territories and in refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. Ms. Haidar's situation highlights the importance and the urgent need for establishing such a human rights monitoring system in the region.

We urge you to immediately conduct an investigation into the circumstances of Ms. Haidar's forced removal from Western Sahara and to establish a mechanism for the protection of the human rights of the Saharawi people in Western Sahara and Tindouf.

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