2009
Aminatou Haidar
Acceptance Speech: The Moroccan army forcibly annexed the territory of the Western Sahara on October 31, 1975…Morocco pursued a policy of repression, to sow terror in the civil population. This policy forced thousands of Sahrawis to abandon their homes. For 34 years, they have been living in refugee camps in Algeria in wretched conditions, dependent on aid from international humanitarian organizations….Campaigns of kidnappings and arbitrary arrests have hit all Sahrawis without regard to age or sex: old people and young people, women, including pregnant women, and even infants…
It is time for the international community to renounce its attitude as a passive spectator…All we ask is the right which the United Nations, and also the United States, have repeatedly agreed that we are entitled to, namely a free vote on our future political status.