Monthly Archives: January 2016

WS struggle for self-determination taken to European courts

David Connett
The Independent, Sunday 24 January 2016

“UN shuttle diplomacy has consistently failed to break the impasse over the fate of the disputed territories. Now the Sahrawi people are trying to break the deadlock themselves – in the courts.

The mineral-rich country on Africa’s north-west Atlantic coast is bounded by Morocco in the north,  Mauritania in the south and Algeria to the east. All three countries have taken an active interest in the fate of the Sahrawi – not always altruistically. (…cont.)”

The Independent article  >>

European Court ruling threatens Western Sahara contracts

Jan 21, 2016, Menas Associates, Sahara

A landmark ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in favour of the Polisario Front on 10 December has ordered the annulment of a trade agreement between Morocco and the European Union (EU) because it includes the territory of Western Sahara.
The March 2012 trade agreement, which failed to explicitly refer to Western Sahara, left open the possibility that the accord would apply in the disputed region, as both Morocco and the EU clearly intended.

Read more >>

Australia’s Incitec Pivot has received its first shipment of unethical phosphates of 2016

marathaWestern Sahara Resource Watch, 12 January 2016

A New Year’s gift of an estimated US $3.7 million. That’s what Australia’s Incitec Pivot paid the Moroccan government for its first 2016 shipment of phosphate rock sourced in occupied Western Sahara.
On 5 and 7 January, the bulk carrier Maratha Prudence discharged 8,000 tonnes in Portland and another 22,000 tonnes in Geelong – the two ports were Ozzie fertilizer producer Incitec Pivot Limited (IPL) takes in its cargoes of raw material.

WSRW article >>

1976 – 2016 : 40 Years of Exile. Swiss Support Committees for the Saharawi petition is launched

January 2016
The Swiss Support Committees for the Saharawi have launched a Petition to the UN Security Council to require the immediate organisation of a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara and they call for worldwide support for this petition. It’s time to find a solution to the conflict in Western Sahara.

Please sign – and spread the information around the world!
We need thousands and thousands of signatures…
Campaign for signing the petition: 1 January 2016 – 15 August 2016

Sign the petition >>