Category Archives: Phosphate importation

A wave of divestments over illegal resource exploitation in Western Sahara

Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW), 27 June 2016

In recent months, several investment firms have relinquished their interests in companies that are involved in the natural resource exploitation of occupied Western Sahara.
Ever more investors are leaving the small handful of the companies that take part in the exploration, exploitation and purchase of non-renewable resources. Details of 21 such companies are provided in this article.

WSRW article >>

Incitec Pivot is Australia’s last importer of ‘illegal’ phosphate from disputed Western Sahara

Phosphate mine at Bou Craa factory of the National Moroccan phosphate company (OCP) situated in Western Sahara, . Reuters/Youssef Boudlal

Zac Crellin
International Business Times, 15 April 2016

Fertiliser producer Incitec Pivot Ltd. (ASX:IPL) is the last Australian importer of rock phosphate from the disputed territory of Western Sahara, a report has found. In 2015, Incitec Pivot imported 63,000 tonnes of phosphate worth US$7.48 million and constituting one third of its superphosphate fertiliser mix. “We have been in touch with Incitec Pivot for many years with letters explaining the issue to them and meeting them, but we haven’t been successful in convincing them to end their illegal exploitation of this resource,” said Kamal Fadel, Australian representative of SADR’s governing party, the Polisario Front, and head of the SADR Petroleum and Mining Authority. (cont…)

IBT article >>

Louise Gronkjaer reports on a bizarre conference staged by the king of Morocco as a PR exercise

Welcome to Dakhla – the pearl of the southern region of Morocco
Philippe Maton/Flickr

April 2015 – On Business Class to an Occupied City in the Desert

Louise Gronkjaer writes “A brand new conference hall in the middle of the desert. Hundreds of security guards to patrol every sand dune. And absolutely no good reasons to justify that the Moroccan king has spent thousands to fly me in. So why am I in Dakhla? …(cont.)”

Report on Dakhla conference >>

Canadian Companies buying Non-renewable Resources from Moroccan-occupied West Sahara

Yves Engler, Dissident Voice, February 23rd, 2016

In violation of international law two major Canadian companies are buying the non-renewable resources of Africa’s last remaining colony.
Saskatoon’s PotashCorp and Calgary’s Agrium have partnered with Morocco’s state-owned OCP to export phosphate mined in Western Sahara, a sparsely populated territory in northwestern Africa that was ruled by Spain until 1975.

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.

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

Western 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 >>

Global Change, Peace and Security: Western Sahara: The Role of Resources in its Continuing Occupation

13 November 2015
La Trobe Law School announces the publication of the latest issue of

Global Change, Peace & Security, Special Issue: Western Sahara: The Role of Resources in its Continuing Occupation (Issue 27(3), October 2015).

To read about the right to self-determination, political and socio-economic factors that may inhibit its exercise, and the possible consequences of failure to give effect to that right in the context of the Saharawis of Western Sahara and Morocco’s exploitation of Saharawi natural resources, see this latest issue.
The journal is published by Routledge in association with La Trobe Law School.

Global Change, Peace & Security – Special issue: Contents

WSRW 20/10/2015 – UK Court refers Western Sahara imports case to EU Court

Western Sahara Resource Watch, 20 October 2015

In refering the case on the questionable legality of UK imports from Western Saharan products to the European Court of Justice, the UK Judge stated that “there is an arguable case of a manifest error by the [European] Commission in understanding and applying international law relevant to these agreements.”

Western Sahara Resource Watch article >>

Hillary Clinton, Phosphates and Western Sahara

Professor Stephen Zunes, The Huffington Post 30 September 2015

Stephen Zunes writes of Morocco’s continuing violation of the UN codification of the rights of non-self-governing people to control their own natural resources. This longstanding international legal principle involves the nation of Western Sahara, the former Spanish colony invaded, occupied, and annexed by Morocco in 1975. (…cont.)

Professor Stephen Zunes report >>

Trade Agreements, EU Law, and Occupied Territories – A Report on Polisario v Council

EJIL Analysis, July 1, 2015
Geraldo Vidigal, Senior Research Fellow at the Department of International Law and Dispute Resolution of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg

Vidigal writes “Speaking of occupied territories, an interesting judgment should soon come from the General Court of the European Union (GC) in Action for Annulment Frente Polisario v Council (Case T-512/12), a case with fascinating international law aspects. I attended the hearing last week and think it warrants a report….(cont.)”

Australia Western Sahara Association

Working for justice for the Saharawi people