In Laâyoune, the capital of the Moroccan Sahara, a section of the Moroccan Centre for Human Rights (CMDH) has been recently created in order to meet, on the one hand, the urgent request of the civil society and to strengthen, on the other hand, the network of associations militating in the human rights field in Laâyoune, Smara, Boujdour, Dakhla and other cities of the big Moroccan South.
As for its President, Khalid Cherkaoui Semmouni, it was imperative to activate the CMDH in the Sahara by setting up the CMDH program in Laâyoune, to endow it with the necessary means of actions, taking into consideration the stakes in the region and to be present on all the human rights fronts, political, economic, social and cultural concerning all the judicial problematic segments, such as women rights, children rights, rights of the mutilated or handicapped persons or even those of the repatriated, victims of kidnappings and exactions committed by the Polisario in Tindouf, Algeria.

The CMDH program aims also to fight within a legal framework, against power abuses, corruption and misappropriation of funds and public estates in the region. Furthermore, one of its main missions is to accompany the political and society evolution of the region as part of the ongoing process of advanced democratization of the public life and the future regionalization, highlighting the rights and obligations of each party in these processes: local authorities, elected institutions, representatives of the Nation and the Region, economic and social operators, NGOs and associations, citizens and individuals.