Collective Memory and Human Rights Violations in the Western Sahara: Impact, Coping, and Demands for Reparation

Despite the 1991 Ceasefire Agreement, the Kingdom of Morocco has been hampering compliance with United Nations resolutions relating to the fulfillment of the right of self-determination of the Sahrawi people. The whole process has become an endless series of negotiations in a context of constant human rights violations. By means of semistructured interviews (N = 261), this study explores the human rights violations to which the population has been subjected; their impact at the personal, family and community levels; as well as the coping strategies and the need for reparation as expressed by the population. People still living in the Western Sahara were included in this study, as well as others that are in refugee camps. The conclusion is the existence of considerable physical, psychological, and social effects that differ depending on the level of exposure to violence, sex of the respondent, and the place where the victims were, but there is also an important organizational and community resistance in the pursuit of compliance with international law and the population's right to decide on their own future.