...In January, King Mohamed VI gave a speech to mark the publication of the final report of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission, which in November 2005 finished its investigations into grave human rights violations committed between 1956 and 1999, particularly cases of enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention. He expressed his sympathy for the victims of the violations, but stopped short of offering an apology.

The King instructed the national human rights institution, the Human Rights Advisory Board, to follow up the work of the Commission. In June, Prime Minister Driss Jettou set up joint working committees comprising government officials and former members of the Commission to examine the Commission's recommendations, particularly on reparations and institutional and legal reforms. The Board began informing victims and their families of the results of research into 742 cases of enforced disappearance that it said it had resolved. It continued the Commission's research into 66 unresolved cases. The Board said that a detailed list of the enforced disappearance cases examined by the Commission would be published in mid-2006, but this had not happened by the end of the year. No progress was made on providing victims with effective access to justice and holding accountable individual perpetrators, issues not addressed by the Commission.

Arrests and trials of Sahrawis

Eight Sahrawi human rights defenders imprisoned in 2005 for involvement in protests against the Moroccan administration of Western Sahara were released following royal pardons in March and April. Some 70 others arrested during or after demonstrations in the territory in 2005 and 2006 and charged with violent conduct were also freed. In February the Justice Ministry stated that the human rights defenders had been imprisoned for their involvement in criminal acts, not for their views. However, AI considered them likely to be prisoners of conscience, targeted for exposing abuses by Moroccan security forces and publicly advocating self-determination for the Sahrawi people.

Demonstrations by Sahrawis against Moroccan rule continued into 2006. Hundreds of people were reportedly arrested. The vast majority were released after questioning by the police. Some 20 were later convicted and sentenced to up to six years in prison for inciting or participating in violence. At least 10 demonstrators alleged that they were tortured or ill-treated during questioning in police custody. Sahrawi human rights activists continued to be the subject of intimidation by the security forces.

• Brahim Sabbar, Secretary-General of the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State, was sentenced after an unfair trial to two years' imprisonment in June for assaulting and disobeying a police officer. In May, his association had published a report detailing dozens of recent allegations of arbitrary arrest and torture or ill-treatment. Brahim Sabbar and his colleague Ahmed Sbai were awaiting another trial on separate charges that included belonging to an unauthorized association and inciting violent protests. Both were possible prisoners of conscience.

A mission of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visited Western Sahara in May. Its leaked confidential report concluded that the human rights situation there was of serious concern, and that Sahrawi people were denied their right to self-determination and were severely restricted from exercising other rights, including the rights to express their views, create associations and hold assemblies...