Western Sahara Campaign Archive

The archives of the Western Sahara Campaign document the conflict in Western Sahara and Britain and Europe's response to it. The collection comprises the organisational and campaign material of the Western Sahara Campaign including: lobbying material; correspondence with MPs and MEPs; press releases; newsletters and United Nations Security Council reports. The collection also contains material from international human rights organisations, photographs and slides of refugee camps, press cuttings and reference material regarding the Western Sahara conflict. In English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Welsh, Dutch, Danish

The Western Sahara Campaign is a UK based organisation working to generate political support in order to advance the Saharawi people's right to self-determination and to promote their human rights.

The Sahara Action Committee was formed in London in the late 1970s after the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco in 1975. This led to the establishment of the Western Sahara Campaign in 1982, which was formally launched in 1983. It set up an office in London and for some years in Leeds, with a part-time co-ordinator.

The Western Sahara Campaign has been working in solidarity with the Saharawi people and the liberation movement Polisario since 1985 and campaigns to advance their Human Rights as well support them in their fight for self-determination. The Campaign primarily seeks to achieve this by lobbying Foreign Office and UN officials, MPs, MEPs, Trade Unions and the British media, encouraging them to increase international pressure for a peaceful resolution and hold Morocco accountable for alleged Human Rights abuses.

The Western Sahara Trust is part of the Campaign. This is a registered charity which aims to carry out charitable purposes for the relief of Saharan people in need, as a consequence of conflict or poverty. The Western Sahara Campaign is also a member of Western Sahara Resource Watch, an international network of organisations and activists who campaign against companies working for Moroccan interests in occupied Western Sahara.

The collection is divided into fifteen sections: minutes, press releases; communications with the British government; campaign work; WSC newsletters and publications; administrative papers; photographs; papers relating to the European Union; papers relating to the United Nations; papers relating to Human Rights; papers relating to Western Sahara resources; press cuttings; material from related organisations, external publications, and the records of the Sahara Action Committee. Within each section the original arrangement of the papers has been preserved where possible and the original arrangement within file level has also been preserved.

Open

Donated to SOAS Library in November 2007, January 2013, and May 2013

Handlist available

Catalogued

Expected

The collection includes some material by War On Want, a British campaign group whose archive SOAS Library also holds [Ref: WOW]. The material can be located in series 11, 12 and 13.