The Participants in the seminar on the conflict in Western Sahara, organized in Lyon (France) on February 18, 2012, by invitation of the associations of Maghrebian immigration in Europe in coordination with the monitoring Committee of the Maghreb Social Forum (FSMagh), note with satisfaction the quality and serenity of the debate on such a sensitive subject, which is a major obstacle to the constitution of the Maghreb’s unity.
While analyzing the impacts of the recent events, uprisings and revolutions on the region and the economic and social costs of the non- building of the Maghreb because of this conflict, the participants, representing civil organizations and trade unions have particularly discussed the practical steps to progress on the field and realize the “Call for Peace in Western Sahara” (IPSO) that was adopted by the Maghreb Social Forum in 2008 in El Jadida, Morocco.
At the end of fruitful discussions, the participant s and the monitoring committee of the FSMagh, agreed:
1. To expand and multiply spaces of similar discussions throughout the Maghreb region to restore and boost confidence, undermined by the States, between the peoples of the Maghreb and the Mediterranean to strengthen the process of appropriation of a conflict which cost is paid by the peoples, but also to deepen their joint thought and conciliate their vision on the Maghreb of the peoples and what the region aspire to.
2. To develop joint actions based on denunciation, pressure and proposition of solutions about:
• The respect of freedoms, particularly freedoms of movement, association and expression;
• Peoples’ access to natural resources and the fight against social inequalities and the respect of economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, while ensuring that international agreements respect these rights;
• The security of the peoples and the struggle against militarization and lawless areas where criminal economies are flourishing;
• The fight against corruption, erected in a system of management which is a major cause in the stagnation of the conflict.
3. To prepare a strategy and joint actions to pressure the parties to the conflict whether they are direct, indirect or potential to commit themselves in a real process of resolution of this conflict.
The Participants and members of the monitoring Committee of the FSMagh seize this opportunity to call on all democratic and social forces aspiring to peace in the region, to adhere and mobilize for the emergence of an alternative movement for the construction of the unity of the Maghreb, a Maghreb of peoples, another Maghreb, which necessarily passes through a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Western Sahara.
February 18, 2012
Unions Générale des travailleurs marocains (UGTM), Union Générale des travailleurs tunisiens (UGTT), Fédération démocratique du Travail (FDT), Confédération Démocratique du Travail (CDT), Associations des travailleurs Maghrébins en france (ATMF),CEDITIM, IPAM, Dynamique sociale Sahraouie, Asociación de familiares de Presos y desaparecidos (AFRADESA),Union des periodiodistas y Escritos sahrauie (UPES), Comité pour le Respect des Libertés et des Droits humains au Sahara Occidental, Fédération des associations des marocains en France (AMF), Forum Citoyenneté monde Arabe (FCMA), Fédérations des tunisiens pour une citoyenneté des deux rives (FTCR), Association Elghorba, Forum des droits sociaux économique tunisien (FTDES), Association des défenseurs des droits de l’homme au Maroc (ASDHOM – France), Coordination maghrébine des droits de l’homme (CMODH), forum Marocain des alternatives sud(FMAS), Manifeste Euroafricain, associations libyenne des droits culturelles, association des étudiants sahraouie en Algérie, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (HCA), ATTAC, Organisation démocratique du Travail (ODT), Ligue tunisienne des droits de l’homme , association justice et démocratie, Na’oura (Belgique)