I am aware that a number of Sahrawi prisoners have been on hunger strikes in Tiznet prison for various periods over the last number of years in protest at their conditions of detention. However I have not received a report in relation to the specific political prisoner referred to by the Deputy from any of the human rights organisations with which my Department are in regular contact. I understand that the prisoner in question was arrested along with his brother in August 2013 and was sentenced to ten years in prison in Morocco. I have requested that officials in my Department make further enquiries about this particular case and also raise the case with partners at EU level in Morocco. Turning to the broader issues which lie behind these cases, I remain deeply concerned about allegations of human rights abuses in Western Sahara and about conditions of detention for Sahrawi prisoners in Morocco. The UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment visited a number of prisons, police stations and juvenile centres in Morocco and Western Sahara in September 2012. In his subsequent report to the Human Rights Council, he concluded that, in the case of Western Sahara, there was a pattern of excessive use of force during demonstrations, including kidnapping and abandonment in the desert, and of torture and ill-treatment by police officers and security personnel of alleged or known supporters of the independence of Western Sahara, both outside and inside detention centres. He further noted that many individuals had been coerced to confess and sentenced to prison on the basis of such confessions. He recommended that the Government of Morocco should promptly conduct impartial and independent investigations into allegations of torture, hold perpetrators accountable, provide compensation to victims, reconsider the jurisdiction of military courts over civilians, and further strengthen protection for internationally recognized human rights in the area of detention. I call on the Moroccan authorities to give full effect to all recommendations contained in the Special Rapporteur’s report.
Ireland has raised our concerns regarding the situation in Western Sahara with the Moroccan authorities on an ongoing basis, including through the Moroccan Embassy in Dublin and in Geneva at Morocco’s Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council. Ireland specifically recommended that independent and impartial inquiries are carried out with respect to all allegations of mistreatment in detention.
Ireland would also support more regular and ongoing monitoring of the human rights situation in the Western Sahara territory and therefore has supported the inclusion of a broader human rights monitoring mechanism in the mandate of MINURSO, the UN peace-keeping mission in Western Sahara. It is a matter of regret that the UN Security Council has not been able to agree to this to date. I hope that this matter will be re-considered when the MINURSO mandate, due for renewal at the end of April, is reviewed in the coming weeks.
