Ex UN rapporteur deplores HR situation in Western Sahara jails

Former chair of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mads Andenæs, calls the human rights situation in Western Sahara ‘very depressing’.

Published: 11.03 – 2016 21:49Printer version

Previous head of the UN Working Group for Arbitrary Detention, Mads Andenæs, was 2 March 2016 interviewed by Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen on his impression of the human rights in Western Sahara.

Andenæs was leading the working group’s delegation to Morocco and Western Sahara in December 2013 and visited numerous prisons. Their report was published by the UN Human Rights Council 4 August 2014. 

«It is a very depressing situation there, which is only turning for the worse», Andenæs told Klassekampen.

Andenæs stated to Klassekampen that torture «is brutal reality for the people who fight for justice in Western Sahara. People die in jail, while central countries in the West are not critical enough to Morocco». He underlined in particular that Spain is « supporting the regime in Morocco. » 

Mr. Andenæs is professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Oslo, the former Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London and the former Director of the Centre of European Law at King’s College, University of London.