Pino Arlacchi (S&D). - Mr President, Mr Lambrinidis, dear colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to Amendment No 2 to the Annual Report on Human Rights in the World. It concerns the Western Sahara. Signed by 96 colleagues, it condemns the ongoing repression of the Sahrawi people in the occupied territories and demands the release of all Sahrawi political prisoners.

Last year this Parliament, by adopting a similar amendment, achieved an important success in the field of human rights. For this reason I strongly believe that we should not miss the opportunity to reiterate our support for a fair and lasting settlement of the Western Sahara issue on the basis of the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people.

The rights of the Sahrawi are those of us all. In the same amendment we ask for full access to the occupied territories for independent observers, NGOs and the media. We call as well for the establishment of an international mechanism to monitor human rights in the Western Sahara.

In this way we will contribute to putting an end to the last case of colonial oppression in Africa.