The HRSaharawi project

HRSaharawi.com is a joint initiative of the Municipality of Forlì and the University of Bologna – Forlì campus in cooperation with CISP (The International Committee for the Development of Peoples). All the partners involved in its realisation are linked with the Western Sahara population and have already promoted and implemented various initiatives with them.

HRSaharawi.com is focused on two main related topics: Western Sahara and human rights. While human rights protection is still an issue in many international fora, such as before the UN Security Council, the promoters of this web site are convinced that a focus on the human rights dimension is paramount for providing the tools for improving the living conditions of all the people concerned and for a peaceful development of the conflicts which have been shaking that region of the world for many years.

HRSaharawi.com aims to review all the international instruments which have been so far ratified or accessed and may be implemented in Western Sahara or may be of interest for Western Sahara population living abroad, especially refugees. The main scope is collecting all the relevant information in a unique site available for all the people concerned.

Both the monitoring and the protection systems are taken into consideration. The outcome is twofold. On one side, reporting mechanism are useful tools to identify how the situation in Western Sahara has been analysed at the international level. On the other side, a look at the protection systems may show how international human rights law may be useful in specific violation cases.

HRSaharawi.com aims also to provide basic information on the functioning of international human rights mechanisms and how they may be used in order to claim respect and reparation in case of violation.

HRSaharawi.com takes into consideration the following international human rights protection systems:

- United Nations: Human Rights Council’s mandates (Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review); Treaties based bodies (Human Rights Committee; Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Committee against Torture; Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; Committee on the Rights of the Child; Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families; Committee on Enforced Disappearances);

- the International Criminal Court;

- the Regional System of protection: African Union;

- other international systems connected in different ways with Western Sahara: Council of Europe and European Union.

Information coming from non-governmental actors may be also taken into consideration occasionally

HRSaharawi.com provides only official sources which are available also on the official website of each organisation concerned. In case it is impossible to separate sections that dealt with the situation of Western Sahara, the official documents reported in this site are accompanied by specific references that will help the reader to focus on Western Sahara’s issues. The recourse to official sources is meant to grant the maximum level of objectivity. Other means of information are included, if deemed appropriate and reliable.

HRSaharawi.com addresses its information to Western Sahara population, human rights activists, non-governmental organisations, the general public. All persons concerned may use the references here available in order to better protect their rights (for instance, by submitting a communication to an international Committee ). Activists and non-governmental organisations may look at this framework to reinforce their activity towards Western Sahara population while evaluating the opportunity to intervene in the reporting mechanisms that are in place to enable international human rights Committees to monitor the respect of human rights in Western Sahara. Finally, the site is also a tool for the general public at large in order to raise awareness on the living conditions of people in Western Sahara or of Saharawi people abroad.

Scientific Supervisor: Professor Marco Balboni (University of Bologna/Forlì Campus) -Research and database: Carmelo Danisi (University of Bologna/Forlì Campus) - Management and Technical Coordination: Giulia Olmi (Cisp) – Cristina Valicelli and Mirko Capuano (Municipality of Forlì)

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