In Melbourne the three monkeys gathered outside the French Consulate at 33/101 Collins St on Friday 13 April. See no evil, Hear no evil and Speak no evil. They represent the way in which the United Nations has turned a blind eye to human rights abuses in occupied Western Sahara, most notably, France.
France, in particular, has done more than turn a blind eye. It has used its threat of a veto twice before to prevent the inclusion of human rights monitoring in the mandate for MINURSO,the UN mission for a referendum in Western Sahara. MINURSO remains the only UN mission not to have a human rights component.
France, a champion of human rights in many contexts, and which could have the greatest influence with Morocco if it chose to use it, has turned its back on support for human rights for Saharawis. Let's try to make them turn this policy around.
Mark Thomas, a UK comedian who has visited occupied Western Sahara, will spoke at the action outside the French Embassy 3 Monkies action. Mark is doing a show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Human rights continue to be violated in occupied Western Sahara and are being reported now on a new technology called Crowdmap. New incidents appear almost daily: https://westernsahara.crowdmap.com/
Lyn Allison, AWSA's president, has already written on this subject to the UN Secretary General with copies to the 15 Security Council members. A copy of her letter can be seen on http://awsa.org.au/?p=833
An open letter was presented to the French government, asking it not to veto an upcoming vote on UN human rights observations in Western Sahara as it did last year.
More information
Australia Western Sahara Association : awsa.org.au