Monsieur le Ministre
Ci- après un projet de « non paper » que j’ai préparé pour le remettre, lors de vos prochaines visites , a vos homologues des P5, pour solliciter le soutien de leur pays, en prévision de l’examen de la question du Sahara par le Conseil de sécurité en avril 2013
—– Non Paper ——–
1. The United Nations Security Council will meet, next April 2013, to consider the upcoming report of the UNSG on the issue of the Sahara regional dispute.
2. During the past four years, a debate has been instigated by some delegations and centered on the issue of Human Rights in the region of the Sahara.
3. For Morocco, this new trend is part of a clear and deliberate strategy instrumentalizing human rights to destabilize the ongoing political dynamic, which came as a result of Morocco’s proposal of its Autonomy Initiative, which has been qualified by the UNSC as a serious and credible, so as to achieve a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution.
4. Following its interactions with longstanding partners, Morocco undertook bold and concrete measures aimed at reinforcing the national institutional and legal framework in charge of the promotion, the protection and the monitoring of human rights, particularly in the Sahara region.
5. These measures include, in particular, the establishment, in 2011, of the National Council of Human Rights (CNDH), and the Inter-ministerial delegation in charge of Human Rights.
6. The CNDH whose composition is pluralistic and in conformity with relevant international standards, namely “the Paris Principles”, is aimed at strengthening the promotion and protection of Human Rights. With its early warning mechanism, the CNDH has undertaken investigations on the ground; visit detention centres and to handle, on its own initiative, allegation cases of Human Rights violations. In this regard, this institution has published, in 2012, a report on the situation of prisons, and submitted recommendation to the Government on this issue.
7. The CNDH has two operational regional commissions, in the Sahara region, enabling them, on the one hand, to effectively promote and closely monitor human rights on the ground through their interaction with diverse interlocutors (diplomats, NGOs, special procedures of the UNHRC,…), and, on the other hand, to fit perfectly within the framework of Morocco’s Advanced Regionalization process.
8. In this regard, the CNDH submitted, recently, to His Majesty three thematic reports on the organization of the Constitutional Court, the operating procedures of the major innovative clause known as the ‘exception of unconstitutionality, and the reform of the Military Court.
9. Regarding the Inter-ministerial delegation in charge of Human Rights set up in 2011, it has been able to create greater synergies between government and human rights institutions, as well as to promote and strengthen the Human Rights component in public policies. It also ensures more interaction vis-à-vis national and international NGOs and allows for an active and efficient interface with the United Nations Human Rights Council’s mechanisms.
10. Besides, Morocco, which has always been responsive to the visits requested by the Human Rights Council’s Special Procedures and which has always reacted promptly and systematically to all communications related to allegations of Human Rights violations, has received, during 2012, the visits of 3 Special Procedures of this Council (Independent Expert on Cultural Rights, Working Group on the elimination of discrimination against women, and Special Rapporteur on Torture), in the framework of its openness to the 33 mechanisms of this UN body.
11. In the same context, Morocco has addressed an invitation to receive, this year, 3 Special Procedures, namely: the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in persons, in particular women and children, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
12. All these measures are in line with the provisions of UNSC resolution 2044 (2012) that welcomes “the opening of National Council on Human Rights Commissions operating in Dakhla and Laayoune, and the steps taken by Morocco in order to fulfill its commitment to ensure unqualified and unimpeded access to all Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council”.
13. In its positive interaction with the Special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the CNDH has been recognized as a national mechanism of promotion and protection of human rights. Any other monitoring mechanism will be legally inappropriate, politically inacceptable and operationally inefficient.
14. During the next discussion of the upcoming UNSG report on the issue of the Sahara Morocco requests your country to support the Moroccan achievements on Human Rights and to underline the importance of the census of the Tindouf camps population, as a prerequisite measure of protection and security of these populations.
15. Morocco would highly appreciates your support to the UNSG appeals for conducting refugee registration in the Tindouf refugee camps, and hopes that the UNHCR should be allowed, by the host country, to conduct a census of these populations, taking into account the new security challenges and threats to the whole Sahel region.
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