Geneva — The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stressed the importance of resuming its technical missions in Western Sahara, expressing its hope that its missions will access the Sahrawi territories to report on the human rights situation in the territory.

During the interactive dialogue with his report to the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said: "The resumption of the technical missions of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to Western Sahara would contribute to resolving the various obstacles in these territories."

In this context, he hoped that the efforts made in that regard would receive the required support for the access of his Office's technical missions to the Territory.

In a statement to the Sahara Press Service (SPS), the representative of the Polisario Front to Switzerland, the United Nations and international organizations, Ubbi Bushraya Bashir, said that "the High Commissioner's statement and his emphasis on the importance of the technical missions of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to Western Sahara is a good sign, but it would be really important only if it is the beginning of a process that ends the abnormal situation in Western Sahara, where human rights are systematically violated before the eyes of the United Nations and its mission MINURSO."

The Sahrawi diplomat added that "the UN technical missions to Western Sahara have been suspended since 2015 because of the Moroccan occupation's objection to them and taking advantage of the almost absolute silence during the past years by the United Nations in this regard".

He added that "the Polisario Front is ready to facilitate the mission's task and cooperate with it".

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