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During HRC51 General Debate Item 4, ISHR, the Implementation Team in Spain for the Decade on People of African descent and the Elin Association, delivered a joint statement supported by 108 organisations in Europe, the Americas and Africa, denouncing the grave human rights violations against African persons at the southern borders of Spain and in particular in Ceuta and Melilla.
On 27 September 2022, during the General Debate Item 4 of the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Implementation Team in Spain for the Decade on People of African descent, the Elin Association, as well as 108 organisations in Europe, the Americas and Africa including ISHR, denounce once again the grave human rights violations against African persons at the southern borders of Spain and in particular in Ceuta and Melilla.
On 24 June 2022, 37 Sudanese and Chadian nationals, including minors in need of international protection, lost their lives at the border fence of Melilla as a result of the actions of law enforcement of the Government of Spain and the Kingdom of Morocco. Another 64 are still missing.
The Spanish Civil Guard, the National Police and Moroccan law enforcement forces violated the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, resorting to disproportionate violence and lethal force, throwing rubber balls, tear gas bombs, using batons, kicking, punching, manhandling and beating the dozens of injured victims bleeding to death on the ground on top of inanimate bodies in pools of blood.
The dehumanising images recorded show a horror without limits: Moroccan police operating illegally in Spanish territory, carrying out “pushbacks” or immediately returning people without assessing the need for international protection by beating the agonising victims with truncheons instead of offering help.
Although these facts have been denounced to the OHCHR and to the UN human rights mechanisms, there has been no independent investigation so far by the authorities of both countries, leaving these attacks on life totally unpunished.
The Kingdom of Morocco has not only failed to identify the bodies of the victims, but has demanded that their families (from Sudan and Chad) travel to identify them.
Although the European Commission has requested the appearance of the Spanish Minister of the Interior to explain these unacceptable actions, neither the investigation by the Attorney General’s Office has yielded results nor the appearance of the responsible ministry has taken place. On September 21, the Minister of the Interior appeared in the Congress defending the actions by law enforcement officers that has resulted in 37 deaths, 64 missing persons, and several pushbacks of minors and injured persons, who were refugees from Sudan.
Several young asylum-seeking survivors have been sentenced by the Court of Nador to prison and are still detained in Moroccan prisons.
The lack of investigation, conviction, justice and reparation for the victims and their families sends a dangerous message to the law enforcement agencies of the Government of Spain and the Kingdom of Morocco: the lives of Black people are worthless, and can be taken with impunity without accountability in a clear manifestation of structural and institutional racism.
On 12 September 2022, at least one young West African woman died as a result of gunshot wounds to the chest by Moroccan law enforcement officers who opened fire on a group that included 15 women and two children as they attempted to board a boat to cross into Spain.
This modus operandi of Moroccan law enforcement responds to the joint management of forced migration by both countries in which the externalisation of borders and the increased budget by the EU take the lives of Black people, thereby committing serious human rights violations.
From the above mentioned human rights defender organisations that stand up for the right to life, we reject the systematic violence against Black bodies and we make the following appeal to the HRC demanding:
We also call on the relevant Special Procedures, including the Special Rapporteur on human rights of migrants, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement (EMLER) and the Special Rapporteur on racism and related intolerance to be seized of the situation.
Implementation Team for the Decade in Spain, Asociación Elín, International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), and 108 organizations in Europe, the Americas and Africa delivered a joint statement at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council denouncing the systematic and indiscriminate violence against Africans by law enforcement of Morocco and Spain, and demanding investigations, justice and reparations.
At the 55th session of the Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights held an interactive dialogue on the situation of Haiti with the participation of the Designated Expert, William O’Neil.
Civil society is deeply concerned about reports of shrinking civic space, attacks on freedom of expression, rising militarisation, and ongoing communication disruptions in Sudan, threatening the work of women human rights defenders and women’s rights groups. Read ISHR's and other NGOs' calls to action in the joint letter below.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights concluded its 77th Ordinary Session held in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania from 20 October to 9 November 2023. During the session, the Commission renewed its Bureau. It received solemn declarations from elected and re-elected members and launched several documents and newsletters, among others.
