International Bureau for the Respect of Human Rights in Western Sahara

International Bureau for the Respect of Human Rights in Western Sahara
Bureau International pour le Respect des Droits de l'Homme au Sahara Occidental

Founded	March 16, 2002, Geneve, Switzerland
Type	Non-profit NGO
Location	Geneve, Switzerland
Key people	Christian Viret, President
Website	http://www.birdhso.org/ (in French)

BIRDHSO (French: Bureau International pour le Respect des Droits de l'Homme au Sahara Occidental; Spanish: Oficina Internacional para el Respeto de los Derechos Humanos en el Sahara Occidental; English: International Bureau for the Respect of Human Rights in Western Sahara) is a Switzerland-based human rights organization campaigning against the human rights violations in Western Sahara. It has also delegations in France, Italy and Spain.

Objectives

BIRDSHO objectives according to its statutes are:

• Assuring worldwide information as complete as possible about human rights violations in the framework of the Western Sahara conflict.
• Denouncing to international organisms (UN, ICRC among others) every human rights violation in the region.
• Assuring a permanent contact with international human rights organizations for being able to intervene at Moroccan authorities.
• Sustaining morally and materially the families and victims of Forced disappearance.
• Supporting by any means the work of Sahrawi human rights organizations in the occupied territories and abroad.

El Karama

Before the BIRDHSO official foundation in 2002, and after a reunion in November 1993 in Rome, the collective had been releasing every year (since 1994) 3 or 4 informative bulletins entitled "El Karama" (Arabic, والكرامة; English, The Dignity) on the human rights situation in Western Sahara.

See also

• Human rights in Western Sahara
• History of Western Sahara
• AFAPREDESA
• ASVDH