At dawn on July 19th, after hours of deliberation, the verdicts were finally delivered in the contentious retrial in Morocco related to the violence in the Gdeim Izik protests of 2010.
The confrontation highlights the Moroccan routine response towards self-determination and human rights activists in the occupied territory of Western Sahara.
Some claim that the admission of Morocco will now resolve the question of Western Sahara’s occupation but in fact Morocco is now emboldened.
The question of Western Sahara has been in a stalemate since 1976, but with Morocco joining the African Union, the new leadership of Polisario, and the escalation in El Guergarate region, is there room for renewed negotiations?
Some reflections about the Sahrawi struggle for self determination on the 41st anniversary of the proclamation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
Can Morocco's admission to the African Union last month trigger a lasting solution to the forty-year long Western Sahara conflict?
Morocco’s admission to the African Union after decades of absence was received as a victory, but what does it mean for the Western Sahara?
If autonomy is to prevail then it should be an autonomy within a fully and strictly democratic Morocco, and if confederation is to prevail then a confederation within a fully and strictly democratic Western Sahara.
Although men and women both actively participate in resistance projects, Sahrawi women facilitate most of the communication between non-violent activists from one city to another in this under-reported struggle.
