FLORES DEL SÁHARA

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Finished 10 / 01 / 2016
Funded!
Received
€ 6.287
Minimum
€ 6.000
Optimum
€ 26.000
26 Backers
Channel
  • Contributing € 25

    «DAISIES» Flowers of Sahara [01]

    "Learning from peace processes» Mundubat's Gakoa Collection . Includes Chapter Number 17. "Visions from the Sahara" by Ahmed Ettanji, human rights activist, President of "Equipe Media" in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

    > 07 Backers
  • Contributing € 50

    «Desert Roses» | Flowers of Sahara [02]

    "Learning from peace processes» Mundubat's Gakoa Collection . Includes Chapter Number 17. "Visions from the Sahara" by Ahmed Ettanji, human rights activist, President of "Equipe Media" in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
    Photography of 'Flowers of the Sahara "campaign.

    > 05 Backers
  • Contributing € 100

    «Wind roses» | Flowers of Sahara [03]

    Tote Bag with an illustration of Higinia Garay for Mundubat.
    Photography of 'Flowers from the Sahara "campaign.

    > 03 Backers
  • Contributing € 150

    «Cala Lily» | Flowers of Sahara [04]

    Tote Bag with an illustration of Higinia Garay for Mundubat.
    Photography of 'Flowers of the Sahara "campaign.
    "Learning from peace processes» Mundubat's Gakoa Collection . Includes Chapter Number 17. "Visions from the Sahara" by Ahmed Ettanji, human rights activist, President of "Equipe Media" in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

    > 00 Backers
  • Contributing € 300

    «Garden of Sahara» Flowers of Sahara [05]

    Tote Bag with an illustration of Higinia Garay for Mundubat.
    Photography of 'Flowers of the Sahara "campaign.
    Shirt with an illustration of Higinia Garay for Mundubat.

    > 01 Backers
  • Contributing € 500

    «Oasis» | Flowers of Sahara [06]

    Tote Bag with an illustration of Higinia Garay for Mundubat. Photography of 'Flowers of the Sahara "campaign.
    "Learning from peace processes» Mundubat's Gakoa Collection . Includes Chapter Number 17. "Visions from the Sahara" by Ahmed Ettanji, human rights activist, President of "Equipe Media" in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
    Photography of 'Flowers of the Sahara "campaign.
    Shirt with an illustration of Higinia Garay for Mundubat.

    > 00 Backers

About this project

[#FlowersofSahara] Help to the defenders of human rights with video cameras and recording equipment

Needs Task Minimum Optimum
Help to the defenders of human rights with video cameras and recording equipment
Help to the defenders of human rights with video cameras and recording equipment
€ 6.000
Help for AFAPREDESA before the UN
Help for AFAPREDESA before the UN [GENEVA]
€ 20.000
Total € 6.000 € 26.000
Necessary
Supplemental

General information

The campaign «FLORES DEL SÁHARA» will generate awareness about the successive and diverse human rights violations against the Saharan people.
During the last 40 years, the Western Sahara has suffered an illegal and brutal occupation under the King of Morocco, who has systematically violated the Saharan people’s basic human rights. This occupation contravenes international law along with innumerable resolutions from both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations.

The campaign «FLORES DEL SÁHARA» was created by MUNDUBAT in coordination with the Association of Relatives of Lost and Missing Saharans (AFAPREDESA) and other organizations that assist the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

The objective of this campaign is to help the defenders of human rights in the Sahara with video cameras and other technological assets. This equipment will facilitate the documentation of systematic human rights violations. Further, it will serve to record the memory of four generations of Saharan women and men who lived during the 40 years of exile and occupation of their territories.

POLITICAL POSITION OF MUNDUBAT
«Western Sahara: 40 years is enough. We can be part of the solution. We denounce the Madrid Accords. » is the motto of our present political action campaign to support the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and its right of self-determination coinciding with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Madrid accord that stripped the Saharan people of their own territories and sovereign rights to decide their status as a nation.

The Spanish state does not have the right to transfer the territory of the Western Sahara to Mauritania and Morocco as it pretends that it does in the Madrid Accord.

The groups with which we work in solidarity in the Western Sahara demand a complete reformation of the current situation, with foundations in peace and justice. From Spanish political parties, the government of the Spanish State and the international community, we ask for:

-A pledge of denouncement of the Madrid Accord
-Decolonization of the Western Sahara
-A referendum for self-determination

HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF THE SAHARAN PEOPLE
In the past four decades, an entire people has been victimized and subjected to grave human rights violations without this having placed into motion international verification mechanisms and without justice or reparations for the victims.

Not even the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara has a verification mandate, granted by the international community to other peacekeeping missions.
In the absence of this international mechanism, there are organizations founded by Saharans, with the support of human rights organizations, which have been developing the fundamental task of monitoring and denouncing the grave situation of systemic human rights violations, under which the Saharan people have suffered continuously.

Cases of forced abductions, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, torture and other grave violations of basic rights have been documented by these organizations and they show us a frightening picture.

The figures of people who have been killed or have disappeared exceed on a percentage basis the serious and known human rights violations of Argentinean and Chilean dictators, or countries that have produced genocides of entire social groups, like Guatemala. Hundreds of cases of disappearances or internments in clandestine detention centers have been documented. The Saharan women have especially suffered from violence by occupation forces.

Monitoring and denouncing human rights violations is very difficult work. Human rights organizations are prohibited in the Western Sahara, which is a complete violation of international standards.

The victims, activists and defenders of human rights suffer persecution and continuous harassment, with arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and degrading and inhuman treatment. They are subjected to legal trials without due process. The rights to freedoms of expression, association and demonstration have been absolutely curtailed.

Despite these difficulties, these organizations continue their work of monitoring the human rights violations which are committed against the Saharan population. They collect historical and recent testimonies and from both victims and their families, along with offering legal and emotional support. They are the voices of the victims and they report their situations to the international public. This is the purpose of the Association of Relatives of Lost and Missing Saharans (AFAPREDESA), whose labor in reporting the atrocities committed by Morocco in Western Sahara is internationally recognized as an ethical benchmark. The campaign «FLORES DEL SÁHARA» works closely with AFAPREDESA.

Description of the project. Main features, strengths and differentials.

The defenders of human rights in the Western Sahara require support from different fronts to facilitate their titanic task. It is necessary to continuously monitor the situation in the Western Sahara, as well as document and collect accounts of victims and their relatives (like the testimonies of the infamous Black Prison of Laayoune. At the same time, it is necessary to facilitate international legal support in trials that are under military jurisdiction, such as those that are held against the activists from the Gdim Izik Camp. There is still a need to continue to publicly denounce these trials through the media and international mechanisms for the protection of human rights.

The campaign «FLORES DEL SÁHARA» is aimed at strengthening the capacity of AFAPREDESA for the development of their vital work of monitoring, documenting and denouncing the human rights violations in the occupied territory of the Western Sahara.

«FLORES DEL SÁHARA» will help the defenders of human rights with audiovisual technology to track and reflect upon the violations of human rights. They will be given cameras, recorders and telephones. This equipment will permit them to see in real time the true situation in the old Spanish colonial territory through social media, in addition to supporting the informants on violations of human rights.

The equipment will support a greater political impact in both the Spanish state and the international arena. Additionally, it will strengthen the presence of the defenders of human rights in international forums.

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Why this is important

Although the violent state of affairs against defenders of Saharan human rights has been taking place for a long time, Morocco has recently intensified its strategy of repression to silence voices which are being increasingly heard in international forums and they have jeopardized the reputation of Morocco before the international community.

The Spanish state has a historic stake in the future of the saharan people, as the administering power of what is now called Western Sahara. Until the end of 2016, Spain will occupy a seat as non-permanent member of the Security council, who, correspondingly, has the prime responsibility to maintain international peace and security and who should play a key role in the resolution of the conflict in Western Sahara.

It is crucial in these moments that the human rights violations of the Saharan people forms a part of the agenda of the Spanish state in the security council. At the same time, it is also necessary that the diverse international instruments for protection of human rights are used against these violations.

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Goals of the crowdfunding campaign

Our objectives are to follow, document, and denounce the grave violations of human rights which are being perpetrated against the Saharan people.

The following actions will be accomplished to achieve these objectivesÑ

  1. Allocation of equipment (cameras, recorders, cell phones) to the defenders of human rights.
  2. Preparation of reports detailing and denouncing the serious violations of human rights
  3. Presentation of denouncements before international human rights organizations, especially before special mechanisms of the United Nations
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Team and experience

MUNDUBAT, which means One World in the Basque language, is a cooperative development non-governmental organization.

We are a collective that for three decades has cooperated with women and men, with associations and communities in their challenges of development and social transformation. Our commitment to solidarity and ethics, in the North as well as the South, wants to contribute to the defence of human rights and sustainable human development in both hemispheres.

MUNDUBAT was created in 1988 with the name, Paz y Tercer Mundo-Hirugarren Mundua ta Bakea, which became MUNDUBAT FUNDAZIOA.
MUNDUBAT and AFAPREDESA maintains a relationship based on years of joint work for the defense of basic rights for the people of Sahara. This political and institutional relation has permitted the consolidation of ties of mutual friendship and compromise between both organizations. These ties are sustained by the common objective to defend the right of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic to freely and democratically decide its future.

MUNDUBAT has constant presence in Saharan refugee camps in Tindouf. We have more than 50 people who periodically fly to the zone. It is in these camps that one can find the national headquarters of AFAPREDESA.

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Social commitment