WESTERN SAHARA HUMAN RIGHTS SEMINAR IN TENERIFE

GÜÍMAR, TENERIFE, Friday March 5 2010

The human rights seminar was announced at a press conference in Güímar on Friday

GÜÍMAR council will host a three-day conference on human rights in the Moroccan-occupied nation Western Sahara next week.

by JAMES TWEEDIE
The seminar will run from 5 pm to 9.30 pm every evening Wednesday March 10 to Friday March 12 at the Casa de la Cultura in the town on Tenerife's east coast.
Güímar council organised the event in conjunction with the University of La Laguna, the Pedro García Cabrera foundation, the Institute of Canarian Studies and the Spanish-Sahrawi Cultural Association.
Confirmed speakers include the writer and journalist Alberto Vázquez Figueroa, who will talk on 'The violation of human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara'.
He will be joined by Sahrawi Association of Victims of Rights Violations vice-president Galia Djimi and the UN representative of Sahrawi national liberation movement POLISARIO Front Ahmed Bujari, who will speak on 'The Sahrawi cultural identity and the role of women'.
The event is free and registration can be arranged with Güímar town hall by calling 922 514 820.
The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara, which lies about 100 miles east of the Canary Islands, was annexed by Morocco in 1975 following Spain's withdrawal at the end of the fascist Franco era.
Late last year Sahrawi human rights campaigner Aminatou Haidar spent a month on hunger strike at Lanzarote airport after being refused entry to her homeland on return from the USA, where she had received a human rights award.

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