Spanish human rights organizations “La libertad es su derecho” (Freedom is their right) and “Pedro Ignacio Altamirano” voiced their deep concern during a conference held in Sevilla, Spain, on Saturday about serious violations of international law and human rights committed by the Polisario Front in Tindouf camps in Algeria, principally the recruitment of children for military purposes and their exploitation for political gain.
The Spanish NGOs emphasized the urgent need for international attention on the issue and an “urgent and thorough investigation” into the Polisario militia’s enrollment of innocent children from the Tindouf camps, underlining the flagrant violation of their fundamental human rights.
The organizations stressed the moral and ethical responsibility of nations to address the brutal exploitation of children in wars throughout the world, citing Articles 38 and 39 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, with a special focus on the Polisario’s operations in Algeria’s Tindouf camps.
The Pedro Ignacio Altamirano NGO encouraged the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to look into the instances of those imprisoned and held by the Polisario armed forces in the Tindouf camps.
The first NGO stated, “As a civil society, we cannot allow attitudes that hinder the full development of children, as outlined in the Declaration of Human Rights, especially in the face of intolerable violence against innocent children victimized by the Polisario’s violations.”
In July 2023, the Dakhla-based International Research Center on Child Soldier Prevention strongly condemned the recruitment of child soldiers in the Tindouf camps in Algeria after witnessing a parade of hundreds of children (both boys and girls) in military uniforms. The Moroccan think tank said that it held Algeria “legally and morally responsible for this flagrant violation and contempt of international humanitarian law on its soil.”
M’rabih Ahmed Mahmoud, one of the rare Sahrawis who has ever escaped the clutches of the Polisario, told Barlaman Today previously about the militia group’s systematic human rights abuses, including child soldier recruitment, and children facing starvation when they refused or being added to the “death note” list.