Category Archives: General

The Responsibility of the UN Security Council in the Case of Western Sahara

Hans Corell, Former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations
International Judicial Monitor, International Law Analysis and Commentary, Winter 2015

In this Commentary Hans Corell raises the question of Western Sahara saying “that it is a situation where the Security Council risks falling short in fulfilling its mandate. Under the UN Charter the Council has a legal obligation to take action in situations like the present.” (…continued)

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January 2015: African Union adopts important decisions on WS

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Twenty-Sixth Ordinary Session   23 – 27 January 2015
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA

DECISION ON THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS
Doc.EX.CL/887(XXVI)

The Executive Council,

10. REITERATES its serious concern at the continued illegal occupation of the territories of Western Sahara which could not be visited by ACHPR in line with Executive Council Decision on the matter, DEMANDS expeditious implementation of the various relevant United Nations and African Union Resolutions to actualize as early as possible the long awaited self-determination of the Saharawi people; in that regard, Council RECOMMENDS that AU organize some of its activities in the liberated territories of Western Sahara as a demonstration of solidarity with the Saharawi people in their legitimate aspirations(1); \

11. RECOMMENDS to the Assembly of the Union to adopt a special declaration condemning the holding of the Crans Montana Forum in Dakhla in the occupied territory of Western Sahara (1), (2);

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January 2015 New online newsletter about all things Saharawi

Western Sahara Update
January 2015

A new online newsletter about all things Saharawi is now available. It is being distributed to 3500 organisations and individuals and is produced by Zain Atfaak in partnership with Sahrawi young people in the Tindouf camps and is sponsored by the Province of Antwerp (Belgium).

To subscribe to the free online newsletter:
email [email protected]

Morocco’s King Slow to Deliver on Pro-Democracy Vows

By AIDA ALAMIJUNE 11, 2014

RABAT, Morocco — A few weeks shy of his 15th anniversary as Morocco’s ruler, King Mohammed VI was spotted on the streets of Tunisia in jeans and a T-shirt while on an official visit, living up to the King of Cool nickname given to him by the foreign news media.

Back in the kingdom, however, tensions have been rising. Pro-democracy activists and journalists have faced increasing repression, as the government tries to tame an opposition emboldened by the 2011 Arab revolutions.
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P for Phosphate – P for Plunder – Morocco’s exports of phosphate from occupied Western Sahara and Australia’s controversial imports

A report, launched on 13 June by Western Sahara Resource Watch, reveals that Australia now has just one importer of the controversial phosphate: Incitec Pivot.

Incitec Pivot Limited is one of ten companies on the P for Plunder report’s red list of companies involved in this unethical trade, spending US$11million per annum on the high-grade phosphate to use in the production of superphosphate fertilisers. By coincidence, it is currently receiving yet another phosphate shipment from Western Sahara in Geelong on board the Western FedoraWesfarmers/CSBP is on the orange list of “companies under observation”. This is because although it has put its imports on hold for the past 2 years, it has reserved the right to make a commercial decision to resume if need be. Continue reading →

Incitec caught in crossfire

GREGOR HEARD for Stock Journal

14 Jun, 2014

INCITEC Pivot (IPL) has come under fire from an independence group from the disputed territory of Western Sahara in Africa for continuing to buy phosphate from Morocco that originates from the north-west African state.

Kamal Fadel, a spokesman for the Polisario Front, a group dedicated to Western Saharan independence, claims IPL is in violation of international law by continuing to purchase phosphate from Morocco, which he claims extracts the phosphate from Western Sahara illegally. Continue reading →

Statement of the Saharawi Republic concerning Incitec Pivot Limited and the trade in phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara

In 2013 IPL imported two shipments of phosphate mineral rock from occupied Western Sahara, valued at approximately $ AUS 12 million. Such shipments have been routinely protested by the SADR, and despite them, continue to arrive in Australia.  Western Sahara remains illegally occupied by Morocco, contrary to declarations of the United Nations General Assembly and a 1975 determination of the International Court of Justice.  No state recognizes Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara and all countries are under a positive duty to support the self-determination of the Saharawi people.  As the original inhabitants of the territory until its invasion, the Saharawi people have exclusive sovereign rights to phosphate, a non-renewable resource, and have continuously called for an end to its taking.      Continue reading →

Morocco ignores the plight of Sahrawi refugees at its door

“I’m going to Dakhla,” I told my close friends and family. Without any further clarification, Dakhla could mean different things to different people. For Sahrawi refugees, those who fled the Western Sahara conflict in the 1970s and 1980s, Dakhla usually refers to the most remote of the four major refugee camps outside of Tindouf in southern Algeria.

For most others, Dakhla refers to the city in the non-self governing territory of the Western Sahara, currently under Moroccan control. As a journalist, however, my going to the Dakhla refugee camp aroused an existential fear among friends and family, who were largely informed by the Moroccan narrative on how dangerous the Polisario-controlled refugee camps were – especially for a Moroccan woman. Continue reading →

Saharawi representative tells UN Seminar that the Special Committee on Decolonisation must do much more to bring about the decolonisation of Western Sahara

picture-prime-minister-1.jpgThe issue of Western Sahara was discussed during the UN Special Committee on Decolonization 2014 Pacific Regional Seminar which was held  in Nadi, Fiji, from 21 to 23 May with a view to accelerating action in implementation of the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2011-2020).

 

The Saharawi representative Fadel Kamal pointed out that “51 years had passed since the Territory had been placed on the Special Committee’s list as Africa’s last colony.”  He underlined that the Saharawi people are frustrated that the United Nations has not done more to fulfil this responsibility and that heir legitimate aspirations remain unfulfilled, while Morocco continues to obstruct the UN’s political process, exploit Western Sahara’s natural resources, and violate the fundamental human rights of the Saharawi people.”

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