Western Sahara on the agenda
Norwegian students’ peace prize 2009 goes to the student Elkouria “Rabab” Amidane for her work for human rights in the occupied territory Western Sahara.
– By making herself a spokesperson and a face for the suppression that Sahrawian students and the Sahrawian people are exposed to, she has put both herself and her family in danger, says Thor Richard Isaksen, leader of the Students’ Peace Prize in a news release.
Western Sahara has for a long time waited on their liberty from Morocco, ever since the International Court of Justice, ICJ in The Hague decided that the inhabitants were to vote on their independence. That was 30 years ago. Amidane has worked to educate the world about the abuse Moroccan government puts on the Sahrawian people and its students, according to Isfit.
As a student at a Moroccan university, Amidane has been working for Sahrawian students’ freedom of speech and an everyday life without control and police surveillance. On several occasions she has video documented breach on human rights, and spread the information through the Internet. Amidane’s activism has lead to her family’s house in Western Sahara being stormed by the police more than twenty times, and she has been tortured during police interrogation, Isfit reports.
See Amidane give thanks for the prize on YouTube
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Right and important winner
The National Union of Students in Norway (NSU), Norwegian Association of Students (StL) and Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH) congratulate Rabab and the Student Peace Prize with the award. Through this award the Student Peace Prize puts Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara on the agenda, says the three organizations leaders, Ingvild Reymert, Øistein Velle and Sigrun Espe.
– Elkouria ”Rabab” Amidane is a right and important winner. It is time for the Norwegian government, and especially Arbeiderpartiet (The Norwegian Labor Party), to state their opposition to the abuse of Sahrawian students, the three student leaders report.
Amidane comes to Norway and Trondheim to receive the peace prize on February 27th, under the International Student Festival in Trondheim (ISFiT). The peace prize is given on behalf of all Norwegian students and is the only peace prize in the world that is given to students from students, Isfit reports.
The peace committee is lead by Sigrun Espe from SAiH and also consists of Ole Danbolt Mjøs, former leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Bjørn Hansen, NRK journalist, Gro Brækken, Secretary General of Save the Children and Stein Tønnesson, director of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). The students have four representatives in the committee, Øistein Ø. Svelle and Ina Tandberg from StL and Erik Evans and Marte Sendstad from NSU, says Saih.
The Student Peace Prize is given every other year on behalf of all Norwegian students. The prize goes to a student or student organization that has made a big difference on peace and human rights work, SAIH reports on their web site. SAIH is students and academics in Norway’s solidarity and aid organization.
