The right to self-determination and the indigenous people of Western Sahara

The right to self-determination and the indigenous people of Western Sahara

Sidi M. Omar, then Polisario Front representative to the UK and Ireland, argues that the Sahrawi people have been denied their right to self-determination since Morocco occupied and annexed Western Sahara in 1975, and that this breaches a basic norm of international law that the UN must address. He traces how self-determination developed from a principle in the UN Charter into a legal right through the decolonisation resolutions, especially General Assembly resolution 1514.

Omar describes how a distinct Sahrawi identity formed through precolonial social structures, Spanish colonial policy and the nationalist movement that produced the Polisario Front and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. He relies on the 1975 ICJ advisory opinion, which found no ties of sovereignty between the territory and Morocco or Mauritania, and he argues that the 1975 Madrid Agreement was illegal. He then reviews the 1988 Settlement Plan, the stalled referendum, the Houston Agreement and the Baker Plan, and blames Moroccan obstruction and UN passivity for their failure.

He concludes that the deadlock is likely to last, that outside pressure or change inside Morocco may be needed, and that only a UN-supervised referendum offering independence can lawfully resolve the conflict.

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