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of the organization and its Secretary-General to speak out for human rights. It also
stands in contrast to the practice of integrating human rights monitoring into
peacekeeping operations elsewhere in the world.
The UN maintains a permanent presence in the refugee camps in Tindouf and in
Western Sahara. Yet the most prominent UN entity there, MINURSO, has no human
rights mandate and conducts no ongoing human rights monitoring or reporting. Its
mission has no formalized cooperation with the Geneva-based OHCHR.
The UNHCR has offices in both the Moroccan-controlled territory and the Tindouf
refugee camps. The staff includes a number of protection officers who help MINURSO
administer a program of visits between the two zones for families separated by the
conflict. The UNHCR office in Tindouf also assists in the legal documentation of
refugees, provides legal advice and training with regard to sexual and gender-based
violence, and, in 2007, began training the Polisario police on international refugee
law and human rights law. 43
In 2006, the OCHCR dispatched a delegation to investigate the human rights
situation in Western Sahara and the Tindouf camps. Although the UN never officially
published its report, it is available on the Internet. The delegation concluded, with
respect to the Moroccan-ruled territory:
[T]he Sahrawi people are not only denied their right to selfdetermination,
but equally are severely restricted from exercising a
series of other rights […] such as the right to express their views about
the issue, to create associations defending their right to selfdetermination
and to hold assemblies to make their views known. 44
The delegation’s visit to the Polisario-controlled camps around Tindouf was less
conclusive:
43 “UNHCR Sub-Offices in Tindouf,” MINURSO website publication, http://www.minurso.unlb.org/unhcr.html (accessed April
28, 2008).
44 Unpublished report of OHCHR Mission, para. 53.
29 Human Rights Watch December 2008