Statement CODESA

STATEMENT
Since 2002, the desire of the the Sahrawi human rights defenders has been increasing to create adequate conditions for the establishment of a Sahrawi association for human rights under the name “The Collective of the Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders”, intended to work for defending human rights in the Western Sahara, south of Morocco and the Moroccan universities (places where the Sahrawi citizens live) and based in El Aaiun, the capital of Western Sahara.
Yet, the concern about the great amount of human rights violations, perpetrated unjustly on a daily basis by the Moroccan authorities, imposed the inauguration of a type of work that focuses mainly on observing and disclosing the violations - a concern that was being monitored by the CODESA secretariat through releases, reports and significant participations in international meetings among various international organizations.
To represent this continuous will to spread human rights culture which is founded upon the international charters and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the commitment to human rights values,
The CODESA secretariat, while reminding of the Moroccan authorities’ ban of the CODESA constitutive conference in El Aaiun, Western Sahara on October 07th, 2007 with no legal reason, has elected an Executive Body and an Administrative Committee as the CODESA’s leading bodies.

The Executive Body of the CODESA has met on November 07th, 2008 and elected the Sahrawi human rights defender, Aminatou Haidar, president of The Collective of the Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders, CODESA.

The Executive Body of The Collective of
The Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders,
CODESA
El Aaiun, Western Sahara.
November 07th, 2008.