UNHRC: Polisario continues to enslave women in 21st Century

If slavery has been abolished almost everywhere in the world, this evil and crime against humanity persist in the 21st century and particularly in the polisario-controlled camps, in Tindouf in Southern Algeria.

This inhuman, degrading, cruel, detestable and prohibited treatment suffered by Sahrawi women in these camps under the watch of Algerian authorities has been denounced during the 45th session of the UN Human rights Council convening in Geneva.

Addressing via videoconference the UN body, Shaibata Mrabih Rabaou, a Sahrawi human rights’ activist, has exposed this entrenched practice suffered by Sahrawi women in these camps in violation of international laws and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude”.

But in the Tindouf camps, women are abused, raped, held against their will and subjected to forced pregnancy, he added, citing heartbreaking stories and sufferings endured by some mothers after their children were taken away from them and sent without their consent to other countries to be brainwashed.

UN resolutions and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women prohibit such practices, but “Algeria and the Polisario armed militias continue to deprive Sahrawi women of their basic rights in blatant violation of international law, said Shaibata.

He launched an urgent appeal to the UN Human Rights Council and the international community to put an end to the hardship and violation of women’s rights in these camps wherein oppression, torture, abuse, ill-treatment, corruption and a culture of impunity are rife.