Brussels (Belgium), June 1, 2026 (SPS) – The European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights condemned the grave violations against Sahrawi jurists by the Moroccan occupation in occupied Western Sahara.
This came in a statement issued by the European Association, in solidarity with the head of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara (CODESA), Ali Salem Tamek, and other Sahrawi jurists in the occupied part of Western Sahara, who are subjected to grave violations at the hands of the Moroccan occupation authorities.
The association expressed its “concern over the increasing use of isolation methods and restrictions on movement, with the aim of preventing solidarity actions, obstructing the monitoring of human rights situations and punishing defenders who support the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.”
It also expressed its “deep concern” about reports that the occupation authorities imposed, since the night of May 19, an effective siege on the home of Sahrawi human rights defender Hussein Mujahid in the occupied city of Laayoune, where Ali Salem Tamek resides with his family.
She recalled what was stated in the reports confirming that the occupation authorities cordoned off Hussein Mujahid’s house, prevented human rights defenders and their relatives from entering it, and deliberately cut off the electricity supply to him.
In this regard, she stressed that CODESA members are still facing restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly, in addition to harassment, citing the constant surveillance and acts of intimidation that the Vice-President of CODESA, Khadito Al-Duwaihy, is exposed to around her home.
The European Association indicated that what CODESA members are exposed to comes in the context of “similar acts of reprisals targeting human rights defenders in various parts of occupied Western Sahara” and that these incidents “reveal a pattern of reprisals and collective punishment directed against Sahrawi human rights defenders.”
In this regard, it called for “an end to the arbitrary detention, forced transfer and isolation methods used against Sahrawi human rights defenders, to ensure their physical and psychological integrity and to ensure that human rights defenders in Western Sahara are able to carry out their peaceful and legitimate work without fear of reprisal or harassment.”
At the conclusion of the statement, the Association stated that the European Union “is obligated, by virtue of its founding values and legal obligations, to ensure that its external policies and actions comply with international law, including respect for human rights and the right of peoples to self-determination.”
She stressed that “the European Union must strengthen the requirements for respect for human rights within its relations with Morocco, including setting clear standards, monitoring and follow-up mechanisms, and executive measures in cases of non-compliance.” (SPA)
