The UN and Western Sahara - Reviving the UN Charter

The UN and Western Sahara – Reviving the UN Charter

Hans Morten Haugen argues that the UN Charter offers a route to self-determination for Western Sahara that negotiations have failed to deliver. He starts from the territory’s status as a non-self-governing territory under Chapter XI of the Charter. In his reading, Spain is still the administering power in law, because its 1976 declaration that it no longer had any responsibility has no legal effect and the 1975 Madrid Accords contradict the UN’s decolonisation resolutions. Morocco, he writes, is an occupying power, not an administering one.

Haugen works through UN General Assembly resolutions 1514, 1541, 2625 and 3458, the 1975 ICJ advisory opinion, Articles 73 to 85 of the Charter, the failed negotiations under envoy Peter van Walsum and the history of MINURSO, and compares the case with Kosovo and East Timor. He considers three ways Spain could respond and finds that keeping the status quo is not compatible with the Charter.

He recommends that Spain accept its responsibility and refer the matter to the UN, which would place the territory under a temporary trusteeship agreement under Chapter XII. This would allow a referendum with independence as an option. If the Security Council is blocked, he argues, the General Assembly could approve the agreement.

Full article

Read the full article on Anuario Español de Derecho Internacional

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