Former student movement leader; member of the Sahrawi Center for Culture and Thought; advocate for Sahrawi students' rights and self-determination.
He remains in his cell, untreated, because he refuses to wear the uniform that would erase his identity as a political prisoner.HuMENA Editorial
El Hussein Amaadour is a Sahrawi student organizer and advocate for self-determination, imprisoned for leading university protests. He is held in Bouizakarne Prison, where he has been denied hospital care and his sister subjected to degrading searches.
El Hussein Amaadour, also known as El Hussein El Bachir Ibrahim, is a Sahrawi human rights defender and former student movement leader based in Laayoune, the administrative center of Western Sahara. He is a member of the Sahrawi Center for Culture and Thought and has organized demonstrations calling for Sahrawi self-determination, educational rights, and an end to the Moroccan occupation of the territory.
In December 2015, he led one of the most significant student protests in recent Sahrawi history, demanding that the Moroccan Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research establish a university in Western Sahara. The protest mobilized Sahrawi students and became a symbol of resistance to policies that required Sahrawi youth to leave their homeland for higher education.
His activism extended beyond education. He organized and participated in demonstrations against political repression, land expropriation, and discrimination faced by Sahrawi communities under Moroccan administration. His work made him a visible figure in the Sahrawi human rights movement and a frequent target of state surveillance and judicial harassment.
El Hussein Amaadour was arrested in connection with his activism and is currently detained in Bouizakarne Prison. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued Opinion No. 63/2024, finding his detention arbitrary and in violation of Articles 9, 10, 19, and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Working Group called for his immediate release and for the Moroccan state to provide him with compensation.
Despite this international determination, he remains imprisoned. The Moroccan authorities have not implemented the Working Group's recommendation.
On 11 June 2025, El Hussein Amaadour was referred by the prison administration to the prison clinic after suffering from severe abdominal pain and a rising fever for several days. He told his family he suspected food poisoning from contaminated prison meals. He stopped eating prison food altogether.
The doctor at the clinic recommended his immediate transfer to an external hospital. However, the prison administration imposed a condition: he would have to wear a uniform designated for common-law prisoners in order to be transferred. El Hussein refused. He maintained that wearing such a uniform would constitute a humiliation and an erasure of his status as a political prisoner and prisoner of conscience. As a result, he has not received hospital care.
El Hussein's sister, Soukaina Amaadour, is herself a Sahrawi human rights defender. She is a member of the administrative committee of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA) and the Committee of Families of Sahrawi Political Prisoners. She has long advocated for the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people and has faced sustained harassment from Moroccan authorities due to both her own work and her family ties to El Hussein.
On 19 June 2025, during a family visit to Bouizakarne Prison, Soukaina was subjected to a degrading physical search. The search was reportedly ordered by the prison director and was accompanied by racist and defamatory verbal abuse, as well as threats to deny her future visitation rights. The treatment violated her physical and psychological dignity and the family's right to maintain contact during detention.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention's 2024 opinion remains unimplemented. The opinion classified El Hussein's detention under Category II (deprivation of liberty for exercising rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and called for remedial action. The Moroccan government has not publicly responded to the determination or taken steps to release him.
Human rights organizations have highlighted his case as emblematic of the broader repression faced by Sahrawi defenders who engage with international human rights mechanisms or call for self-determination. His case illustrates the intersection of political imprisonment, denial of medical care, and reprisals against family members who defend the rights of detained relatives.
This case file was compiled by HuMENA's Morocco research team from primary documentation, public filings, family-supplied legal documents, and confidential partner reporting. Editorial responsibility rests with the HuMENA Editorial Board. Where dates or facts are uncertain, the record errs on the side of the source material and notes uncertainty in the live archive at humena.org.
HuMENA welcomes corrections, additions, and take-down requests from the defender, their family, or accredited representatives. Material discrepancies are typically addressed within 72 hours.
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