This report, submitted by the Sahrawi NGO Alliance, addresses the issue of children's access to justice in the Sahrawi camps located in the Tindouf region, southwestern Algeria. It is grounded in the international legal framework regarding the rights of the child and the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The report identifies a fundamental problem represented by the state of statelessness suffered by thousands of children born in the Tindouf camps since 1975, resulting from the absence of a comprehensive United Nations census of the camp population, despite relevant Security Council resolutions.

This situation results in the deprivation of children from enjoying the rights guaranteed under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its Protocol, and renders their recourse to Algerian national courts or international mechanisms, including the Committee on the Rights of the Child, impossible.

The report asserts that the delegation by the Algerian authorities of their security and judicial powers to the Polisario Front constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and undermines opportunities to protect children's rights to access justice. The Algerian State consistently claims a lack of jurisdiction in dealing with communications regarding violations of children's rights within the camps.

Furthermore, the report documents multiple barriers preventing children from accessing justice, including the complexity of justice systems, children's ignorance of their rights, their lack of necessary information regarding redress mechanisms, as well as their fear of harassment, stigma, and reprisals in the absence of a central democratic authority and the rule of law in the camps.

The report presents specific, documented instances of grave violations, including the abduction and detention of young girls, and cases of forced detention of girls holding Spanish nationality or residency upon visiting their families in the camps, involving collusion between families and elements of the Polisario organization.

The report also documents practices of forced displacement of children since 1975 to Cuba, Libya, and Spain, where they were subjected to ideological indoctrination, military training, and sexual harassment. It specifically highlights the "Vacations in Peace" program, which transformed from an ostensibly humanitarian project into a mechanism for illegal adoption without the biological families' knowledge.

The report highlights the coercion of children into early military service and their deprivation of completing their education, practices which contravene the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and result in severe psychological complications, without the possibility of their families resorting to Algerian courts or international mechanisms.

The report concludes with recommendations addressed to the Committee on the Rights of the Child and State Parties. These include implementing international human rights standards; revising national legislation; rectifying the legal status of Sahrawis in the Tindouf camps; revoking the delegation of the Algerian authorities' powers to the Polisario organization; establishing independent and effective mechanisms to address children's grievances; providing media and educational platforms in the field of children's rights; and expanding the intervention space for civil society organizations to ensure children's effective access to justice and fair remedies.