Category Archives: Oil and gas exploration

243 organisations ask UN to condemn Morocco’s colonial oil plans

protest_camps_natural_resources_hr_full.jpgThis letter was sent on 15 April 2015 to the President of the UN Security Council, HE Dina Kawar, Ambassador of Jordan to the United Nations, with a request for circulation among the Members of the Council.
“No oil drilling should take place in the territory until the Saharawis have had the chance to exercise their right to self-determination and have freely and fairly decided the political status of their homeland”, the appeal to the Security Council writes…

AWSA is one of the signatories of this open letter to the Security Council: Read the Letter and list of signatories

10 April 2015: United Nations Secretary-General’s Report on Western Sahara

10 April, United Nations, Security Council
This latest UN Secretary-General report on the situation concerning Western Sahara is a disappointing indicator of the UN’s current position on Western Sahara.
In many respects it simply reaffirms the status quo and once again offers little hope that the UN will instigate meaningful change to support the Saharawi’s right to their country and their future. All this in a context of Morocco’s blatant violations of the basic requirements of the international community – self-determination – and of international law – the protection of human rights during an armed occupation.

UN Secretary-General’s 2015 report >>

Tim Robertson, SC; Natural Resources – the Key to Western Sahara’s Future, 19 March 2015

Thursday 19 March – Conference Dinner presentation

Tim Robertson, SC in his Conference Dinner presentation at the Melbourne conference Natural Resources – the Key to Western Sahara’s Future, 19 March 2015 argues that exploration and exploitation cannot be meaningfully separated in practice. He calls into question a crucial distinction in Hans Corell’s 2002 UN legal opinion on oil exploration licences in Western Sahara.
Accepting Robertson’s view would mean that no prospective activity licensed by Morocco can take place in the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara until a referendum of self-determination is held.
Conference Details: http://www.sahararesourcesday.info

Watch Tim’s speech on YouTube >>
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AWSA Press Release: Australia urged to make Western Sahara imports illegal

Australia Western Sahara Association – Press Release, 25 March 2015

Following the inaugural International conference on the illegal exploitation of Western Sahara resources held in Melbourne on 20 March, the Australia Western Sahara Association called on the Federal Government to prohibit Australian company trade in Western Saharan resources from the occupied territory and to push the UN to force a breakthrough in the 40 year stalemate of Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.

Professor Stephen Zunes states that “International law makes it clear that Morocco has no entitlement to control and exploit Western Sahara’s natural resources (…cont. )”

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Saharawi women protest plunder on International Women’s Day

Western Sahara Research Watch (WSRW)
9 March 2015
In celebration of International Women’s Day, yesterday 8 March 2014, the women of the Saharawi refugee camps held a protest against foreign companies that are complicit in Morocco’s plunder of their occupied homeland: Western Sahara.
In Boujdour camp, one of the Saharawi refugee camps in the south-western Algerian desert, women yesterday gathered to demand an end to the illegal exploitation of their homeland, urging the involved foreign companies to leave the territory.

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Western Sahara: West’s resource theft prolongs occupation

GreenLeft Weekly, Friday 6 March 2015 by Tony Iltis

Offshore oil drilling operations off Western Sahara, carried out by the US firm Kosmos Energy, were denounced by Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW) on March 2.
“Kosmos Energy did nothing to obtain the consent of the people of Western Sahara,” said WSRW chair Erik Hagen.
The Dallas-based company said its exploration well had not yielded a commercial find and would be plugged, Associated Press said on March 2.

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Australian fertilisers helping prop up Africa’s last colony

s.jpgKamal Fadel
20 March 2015, The Age, BusinessDay

An international conference was held in Melbourne on Friday March 19 to explore the fraught history of Western Sahara – Africa’s last colony – and Australian companies’ role in supporting a regime that disallows the local people, the Saharawis, the same rights to their environment Australians not only take for granted, but which built this country.

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Thirty-ninth anniversary of SADR proclamation celebrated in Australia

Saharawi Press Service reports on recent and forthcoming Australian action for Western Sahara, Canberra, March 4, 2015 (SPS)

The thirty-ninth anniversary of the proclamation of the Saharawi Republic (SADR) has been commemorated in several Australian cities.
On the occasion, the Saharawi flag was raised in the cities of Melbourne, Ballart, Geelong and Victoria as a form of solidarity with the Saharawi people.
As well, Melbourne will later this month host an international conference on the Saharawi natural resources.
The conference will be attended by experts, professors, lawyers and representatives of international companies. (SPS)

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Flag raising pictures >>

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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