16 November 2022 - By Marieke Hopman
I am very happy to hereby share that the International Journal of Human Rights has recently published an article that present some of the findings of the case study on the child’s right to freedom of expression in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara (MCWS). You can find the article here.
Who limits free expression for children?
The article itself is a controversial piece, since it present findings that are in some respects different from what other researchers and NGOs have published on this topic. Our findings show that, contrary to the stories (“narratives”) presented by most research and activism around human rights in the Western Sahara, the child's right to freedom of expression is limited by different groups. It is limited not only by the Moroccan state, but also by other social orders such as the community, the family and the school. Children in MCWS are not allowed to speak freely about religion, sexuality, and the Western Sahara issue. This is true for both Moroccan and Sahrawi children living in MCWS.
Moroccan nationalist narrative in MCWS: A painting of the Green March: Moroccan people “liberating” Western Sahara, on a wall in Laayoune
A third narrative
However, the research also presents a hopeful message: in MCWS we found a third narrative. This third narrative tells us that while historically Morocco may or may not have had a right to take control over the Western Sahara, the fact is that Morocco rules over MCWS and has done so for a long time. Moroccan and Sahrawi children mix in everyday life on a daily basis. They go to school together, they may be friends or neighbors. Although there is no complete freedom of expression in MCWS, there is space for Sahrawi culture in Moroccan society.
This story is not heard often, because it is the story of everyday people, who do not necessarily speak up. They are not activists and they do not want to risk being prosecuted for telling their story. But it does exist. And I am hopeful that this third narrative can increasingly create space for a conversation where children are free to discuss their questions, thoughts and ideas.
Moroccan nationalist narrative in MCWS: A tourist information board outside of Dakhla, giving information about Morocco's Southern provinces (MCWS). Notice how the map indicates ‘Mauritania’, but not the eastern area of WS controlled by the SADR government-in-exile.
12 April 2022 - By Marieke Hopman & Emilia Klebanowski
We are happy to share that we have now submitted the UPR shadow report on the right to freedom of expression with the UN Human Rights Council. You can read the report here.
The report was submitted in collaboration with: Adala UK , Global Human Rights Defence, terre des hommes Deutschland, terre des hommes schweiz and Western Sahara Campaign.
As you will see, in this report we list the ways in which the Kingdom of Morocco is protecting this right for its people, and in what ways this protection can be improved. We discuss both the legal protection of this right (are Moroccan laws written well so that this right is properly protected?), as well as the protection of this right in practice (do Moroccan authorities such as the police and the courts protect this right in practice?). In some cases there is adequate protection, but as you will read in the report, in many cases there is room for improvement. In some cases both the Moroccan law and the practice by authorities are actually violating international human rights law.
How to do covert qualitative research
The first thing about covert qualitative research is that you don’t tell anyone (except your colleagues) what the true purpose is of your presence in a certain field. In our case, we travelled to Morocco and then further south to what Morocco considers its “southern provinces” (Western Sahara under Moroccan control). We travelled there as tourists and always acted as tourists.
Sampling
Choosing who to talk to (sampling) has to be aligned with the role chosen by the researcher. As tourists, it made sense for us to travel around in the area, to observe, and to speak to people in the streets on occasion. It also made sense for us to have conversations with many people in the tourism industry, such as travel guides, waiters and hotel receptionists. A problem that we encountered in our case, was that through this sampling method we included mostly men. We then tried to actively search for female research subjects, by trying to find public spaces where we might meet women. We registered for a manicure, cut our hair in a female-only hair salon, and went shopping. Unfortunately, this was only mildly successful since many women didn’t speak a language that we spoke.
Research conversations
If you don’t tell anyone you’re a researcher, it is very difficult to have conversations that provide you with useful information, but it is not impossible. This is what we learned:
Driving around in the city of Dakhla
- It is important to limit the number of questions you ask.
While it is normal as a tourist to be curious and interested, asking questions all the time can be suspicious or simply annoying, both resulting in you not getting too much information. We limited our questions to three categories: 1) fun questions; 2) questions on something the respondent was eager to talk about; and 3) questions relevant to the research topic (for us: children’s rights).
- Weave your questions into more casual conversation
One way to do this is to take a remark made by the respondent themself and turn this into the direction of the research topic. For example, in our experience, someone would ask ‘how do you like [name city]?’, to which we would answer with something we noticed, for example ‘I really like how everyone seems to love children! Is that right?’. A second way is to express something about your own life or experience and ask the respondent what this is like in their country. A third approach is to present an experience you have had in the country and to ask what it meant.
- When balancing between research questions and casual conversation: better to err on the side of caution
We found that if we pushed the conversation too much into the direction of the research, we ran the risk of making people feel uncomfortable or the situation getting tense. If you have to choose, better to leave the conversation lighthearted.
Info display on the province of Dakhla, a part of Morocco according to this information board
Data protection
In a situation where people did not choose to participate in a study, but their answers are still used as research data, the least you can do as a researcher is do your best to make sure that this information is stored safely and anonymously. For this purpose, we stored all our data in a secure cloud that could only be accessed through a particular type of VPN connection. Read more about how we did this in this paper.
Limitations of the data collected
The data you collect will most likely be very valuable, but limited. While the data is very objective (no one is trying to manipulate your research outcome since they don’t know that you are a researcher), it is also very limited. For example, you may not have access to locations you might like to study, or to certain types of respondents who are less present in the public space, and you are often not able to discuss your research subject directly. In our case, we also did online interviews with several respondents with whom we got in touch through social media after the field research.
Travelling around to observe the area
Conclusion
To conclude, I believe that covert research methods can ethically speaking be used to study the children’s rights situation of children who live in authoritarian zones. Although there are obvious disadvantages to this method, if the alternative is to have no information at all about a children’s rights situation in a certain area, I think using this method and doing research is preferred over doing nothing. From an ethical perspective, in such cases, it may even be ethically required to do this kind of research, to make sure that certain violations of children’s rights do not go unnoticed. Therefore, if there are authoritarian zones where research on children’s rights violations is not possible other than through covert research, hopefully there will be researchers willing to travel there and studying the situation as undercover researchers.
To learn about the outcome of this case study on the child’s right to freedom of expression in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, see these blogs and vlogs, and this report.
Tourism activity near Dakhla: visit white sand dune
As I explained to the caller, in our report, we made a conscious choice not to get into this political and legal discussion. We made this choice, because this is not our research subject. We are not trying to decide who is the legitimate authority over the Western Sahara. There are many others who have written on the subject (e.g.: Okere (1979), Maghraoui (2003), Zunes (2015). Rather, we are trying to understand what the situation is regarding the child’s right to freedom of expression in this area, and what can be done to improve the protection of this right, by all actors involved. We want children, parents, teachers, politicians, NGOs and local community members to hear our message. If we would discuss the legal and political conflict over the territory, even if briefly, this would immediately become the centre of attention for most of our readers. Everyone would start discussing this part of the study, and very few would still pay any attention to what (else) children are not free to discuss. This would certainly not help the children living in this area at all.
In spite of these arguments, the question of whether or not to discuss the legal/political situation regarding (il)legitimate authority over the Western Sahara has lead to much discussion, with actors from both sides as well as within our research team. Does trying to stay neutral on this conflict, to be able to address a children’s rights issue, mean “siding with the oppressor”, as one of my colleagues suggested? Personally, I don’t think so. This is first, because we don’t use the preferred term of either parties (“Occupied Western Sahara” would be preferred by the Sahrawi activists, “Moroccan Sahara” or “Moroccan Southern Provinces” would be preferred by Moroccan nationalists). Instead, we use the UN term “West of the Berm”. Second, we don’t take a position, but we are critical of children’s rights violations happening within the territory, by all actors. Lastly, I don’t see how it would be necessary to first discuss whether or not Morocco’s position in the Western Sahara is legal, before we can discuss the situation of the child’s right to freedom of expression.
Report page where the area under research is discussed
SOURCE: UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations
Cartographic Section. (2014, April). UN map MINURSO-
deployment Western Sahara, April 2014 [Illustration].
Wayback Machine.
