The Right to Resistance and the Western Sahara: A Twail Analysis of the International Legal Order and Its Constraints on Decolonization

October 2, 2025

The article argues that international law, particularly as shaped by the United Nations and Western powers, reinforces colonial power structures in the Western Sahara. Using a Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) framework, the article examines how legal doctrines like the prohibition on the use of force and the principle of self-determination have constrained the Sahrawi people’s ability to resist Moroccan occupation and achieve independence.

The piece traces the history of Western Sahara from its precolonial tribal governance through Spanish colonization and the emergence of the Polisario Front. It highlights how the UN’s legal and political interventions have displaced indigenous systems while failing to enforce meaningful decolonization, such as the long-promised but unrealized referendum.

Wrapp concludes that the international legal order, far from being neutral, functions as a tool of modern imperialism, limiting resistance and maintaining the colonial status quo in Western Sahara.