Legal status of Western Sahara

Western Sahara, formerly the Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara, is a disputed territory claimed by the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front. Its legal status remains unresolved.

The territory is mostly administered as the Southern Provinces by Morocco since Spain handed over the territory to Morocco and Mauritania after the Madrid Accords in 1975-76. Part of the territory, the Free Zone, is controlled by the Polisario Front as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. A UN-administered cease-fire has been in effect since September, 1991.

In order to resolve the sovereignty issue, the United Nations (UN) has attempted to hold a referendum through the mission United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), and is holding direct talks between the kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front.

Positions of the parties

Kingdom of Morocco

The position of the Kingdom of Morocco is that all of Western Sahara is an integral part of the Kingdom. The Moroccan government refers to Western Sahara only as the "Sahara," "Moroccan Sahara," "Saharan provinces," or the "Southern Provinces"^{[citation needed]}. Western Sahara is the historical birthplace of one of the most successful Moroccan ruling dynasties, the Almoravids. In 1958, the Moroccan Liberation Army of the South fought Spanish colonizers and almost liberated what was then Spanish Sahara. Among the veterans of the Moroccan Southern Army are fathers of many of the Polisario leaders, like the father of Mohammed Abdelaziz, the Polisario leader. Morocco is supported in this view by a number of former Polisario founders and leaders. The Polisario Front is considered by Morocco to be a Moroccan separatist movement, referring to the Moroccan origins of most of its founding members, and its self-proclaimed SADR to be a puppet state used by Algeria to fight a proxy war against Morocco.

Polisario Front

The Polisario Front a separatist movement that opposes Moroccan sovereignty over the region. The Polisario Front began as a movement of disaffected students who felt torn between the divergent Spanish and Moroccan influences on the region. The original goal of the Polisario Front, which was to end Spanish colonialism in the region, was achieved; however lack of foresight regarding future goals led to a bifurcation in Polisario Front leadership. A power vacuum was thus created, into which Algerian, Cuban, and Libyan influences stepped, subsequently forcing a shift in Polisario Front policy towards a more pro-independence rhetoric. This directional change in the Polisario Front’s policy, which forced the group’s original founders out, can be identified as a major cause of the current regional impasse, The Polisario Front calls for the right of self-determination of the people of Western Sahara to be decided through a referendum. Although the SADR is not recognised as a state by the UN, Polisario is considered as a direct party in the conflict.

Algeria

Algeria has been supporting the independence of Western Sahara diplomatically since 1975. In 1976, Algeria got involved directly in the conflict, but after a military confrontation at Amgala against the Moroccan Army, the Algerian role became that of an indirectly involved party through political and military support to the Polisario front. Morocco argues that the Algerian position is due to the Sand War of 1963.

United Nations

Western Sahara was first placed, by Moroccan demand, on the UN list of territories to be decolonized in the 1960s when it was still a Spanish colony. It has retained that status since then due to the persistence of the conflict.^[1] The UN has been involved since 1988 to find a solution to the conflict through self-determination. In 1988, the kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front agreed to settle the dispute through a referendum under the auspices of the UN, that would allow the people of Western Sahara to choose between independence or integration with Morocco. In 1991, a ceasefire was agreed between the parties, contingent on the referendum being held the following year. Due to disputes over voter qualification, the vote has still not been held, and Morocco has made it clear in 2000 that henceforth it will not consider any option leading to the independence of the territory,^{[citation needed]} and instead, is now proposing autonomy within Morocco. Lately, the UN has argued for negotiations between the parties to overcome the deadlock, culminating in the Manhasset negotiations.

African Union

The African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity) has given the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic full recognition,^[2] and accepted it as a member (which has led Morocco to leave the union,^[3] becoming the only African state outside of it.)

Recognition

The SADR is recognized by 46 states. States that don't recognize the Sahrawi republic may, however, recognize the Polisario Front as a legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, but not its exile government as a state.^{[citation needed]} Several states have withdrawn their recognition of the SADR. Although Morocco claims that no recognition is required, Moroccan sovereignty over the territory is supported by the Arab League^[4][5] and by some other states as a policy of deliberate ambiguity.

States recognizing the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara)

The following is a list of state governments that have formally recognized Western Sahara as a sovereign nation, with the exiled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its legitimate government. The vast majority of recognitions took place during the Cold War. Since the 1990s, many states have retracted their recognitions, or suspended recognition pending the outcome of the referendum on self-determination. Although the Spanish Government has vacillated on the issue, King Juan Carlos I os Spain has expressed support for the right to self-determintation in Western Sahara.^[6]

• Twenty-eight recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Thirteen of them are home to Sahrawi embassies
• Thirty-seven have recognized the SADR, then suspended relations or withdrawn recognition.

Foreign Relations of SADR

Number	State	Date of recognition	Member of	Notes
1	Algeria	6 March 1976	Arab League AU  OIC AMU	Embassy. [7]
2	Angola	11 March 1976	AU	Embassy.
3	Antigua and Barbuda	27 February 1987
4	Barbados	27 February 1988
5	Belarus	20 January 1995
6	Belize	18 November 1986[1]
7	Bolivia	14 December 1982
8	Botswana	14 May 1980	AU	Embassy
9	Burundi	1 March 1976	AU	Froze recognition 5 May 2006 33 and reinstated them 2008-06-17 [8]
10	Cambodia	10 April 1979
11	Cuba	20 January 1980		Embassy.[9]
12	Dominica	1 September 1979
13	Ecuador	14 November 1983		Withdrawn 19 June 2004; Relations resumed 8 February 2006.[10] [2]
14	Ethiopia	24 February 1979	AU	Embassy. [11]
15	Grenada	20 August 1979
16	Guinea-Bissau	15 March 1976	AU	Relations suspended 2 April 1997; Relations resumed and embassy re-opened 26 September 2000.
17	Guyana	1 September 1979
18	Haiti	23 November 2006		Embassy.[3][4]
19	India	1 October 1985		Relations suspended 26 June 2000.
20	Iran	27 February 1980[5][12]	OIC	Embassy.
21	Jamaica	4 September 1979
22	Kenya	1 October 1985	AU
23	Laos	7 May 1979
24	Lesotho	9 October 1979[13][14]	AU
25	Libya	15 April 1980[15]	Arab League AU  OIC AMU	Embassy.
26	Mali	4 July 1980	AU  OIC
27	Mauritania	27 February 1984[16]	Arab League AU  OIC AMU
28	Mauritius	1 July 1982	AU
29	Mexico	8 September 1979[17]
30	Mozambique	13 March 1976	AU  OIC	Embassy.
31	Namibia	2 June 1990[6]	AU	Embassy.
32	Nicaragua	6 September 1979		Suspended 21 July 2000,[7] but re-established 12 January 2007[8]
33	Nigeria	12 November 1984	AU  OIC	Embassy.[18][9][10]
34	North Korea	16 March 1976
35	Panama	23 June 1978		Embassy[19]
36	Papua New Guinea	12 August 1981
37	Russia	11 March 1976
38	Rwanda	1 April 1976	AU
39	Saint Kitts and Nevis	25 February 1987
40	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	14 February 2002[20]
41	Seychelles	25 October 1977	AU
42	South Africa	15 September 2004	AU	Embassy.[21][11]
43	Suriname	11 August 1982
44	Syria	15 April 1980	Arab League  OIC
45	Tanzania	9 November 1978	AU	Embassy established June, 2005.[22]
46	Timor-Leste	20 May 2002[12]		The Sahrawi Republic was the first country to establish relations with Timor-Leste or East Timor.
47	Trinidad and Tobago	1 November 1986
48	Uganda	6 September 1979	AU
49	Uruguay	28 December 2005[23][24]
50	Vanuatu[25]	27 November 1980		Vanuatu later recognized the SADR.[26]
51	Venezuela	3 August 1982		Embassy.[27]
52	Vietnam	2 March 1979
53	Zambia	12 October 1979	AU
54	Zimbabwe	3 July 1980[13]	AU	Embassy

International organizations

State	Membership	Notes
Arab League	Not a member.	Currently considered a part of Morocco.[5]
Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA)	Not a member.	Morocco is a founding member of GAFTA.
AU	22 February 1982	SADR is a fully recognised AU member.[2]
OIC	Not a member.	Currently considered as part of Morocco. Mohammed VI of Morocco is currently chairman of the OIC's Al-Qods committee.
UN	Not a member.	The UN does not recognize Moroccan claims. Has argued for negotiations between Morocco and SADR.

States that have suspended or cancelled their recognition to the SADR or they ceased to exist

The recognitions of the SADR are subject to continuous fluctuation, depending on different factors and the diplomatic activity of Morocco, Algeria and Polisario.

A number of states that once recognized the SADR have either suspended or definitely cancelled their recognition. For example, the government of the Seychelles withdrew its diplomatic recognition of the SADR on 17 March 2008.^[28] The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which recognized SADR on 28 November 1984, ceased to exist in 1992. "Cancellation" of recognition by Serbia and Montenegro on October 28, 2004, is due to international law inadmissible.^[29] For an overview on the list of these states click here: Foreign relations of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

List of states supporting Moroccan claims on Western Sahara

No state has recognized the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara, which the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan also stressed in his last report on Western Sahara to the Security Council:

"The Security Council would not be able to invite parties to negotiate about Western Saharan autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, for such wording would imply recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, which was out of the question as long as no States Member of the United Nations had recognized that sovereignty".^[30] Spain is still considered as the administrative power, but Morocco however is the de facto administrating power since it controls most of the territory"^[31].

Some UN member states have expressed explicit support of "Morocco's territorial integrity", in reference to Western Sahara as Moroccan provinces, but only Morocco has made a public declaration of sovereignty over the region.

State	Date of support	Notes
Botswana[32]		AU Member
Gambia[33]		AU Member
Cameroon[34]		AU Member
Central African Republic[35][36]		AU Member
Côte d'Ivoire[37]		AU Member
Egypt[38]		AU Member  OIC Member  Arab League Member
Equatorial Guinea[39][40]		AU Member
Gabon[41]		AU Member
Guinea[42]		AU Member
Madagascar[43]		AU Member
Senegal[44]		AU Member
Swaziland[14]		AU Member
Sudan[45]		AU Member  OIC Member  Arab League Member
Argentina[46]
Colombia[47]
PRC[48]		permanent member of the UNSC
Indonesia[49]
Pakistan[50]		permanent member of the OIC
Iraq[51]		OIC Member  Arab League Member
Kuwait	25 May 2002[52]	OIC Member  Arab League Member
Yemen	11 July 2000	Africast.com (2000-07-12). "Yemen supports Morocco's efforts to protect territorial integrity". Africast.com. http://news.africast.com/article.php?newsID=19280. Retrieved 2006-08-20.   OIC Member  Arab League Member

Other states

•  Canada does not recognise the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic, the POLISARIO Front, or Moroccan sovereignty over the territory. Canada no longer participates in the Western Sahara peacekeeping force (MINURSO) but supports its presence. It also supports efforts made by the UN and the involved parties in achieving a peaceful settlement of the conflict^[53].

•  United States - Commenting on a 2004 free trade agreement with Morocco, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick stated in a letter to Congressman Joe Pitts, in response to his questioning, "the United States and many other countries do not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and have consistently urged the parties to work with the United Nations to resolve the conflict by peaceful means. The Free Trade Agreement will not include Western Sahara."^{[54] [55]}. However the final text provided no provisions with respect to Western Sahara.

See also

• Foreign relations of Morocco
• Polisario
• List of unrecognised countries

References

• Hodges, Tony. Western Sahara: Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill & Company, 1983, ISBN 0882081527 , p. 308
• Hodges, Tony, and Pazzanita, Anthony. Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, 2 ed., Scarecrow Press, 1994, ISBN 0810826615 , pp. 378-379.

External links

Tables of states recognizing the SADR

• World Statesmen
• Western Sahara On-line
• The SADR (Spanish)
• Lasonet.com (Spanish)
• Friends of the Sahara (Spanish)
• The Association for a Free and Fair Referendum in Western Sahara

Others

• Arabic News - Senegal supports Morocco's territorial integrityChange to this, Morocco has "promised" that won't invade Saint Louis (Senegal) AREA.
• Balkan Peace - Serbia-Montenegro withdraws recognition of Sahara Republic
• Morocco Times - Sahara issue - Sudan supports Moroccan territorial integrity
• Arabic News - Morocco, Gabon voice resolve to enhance cooperation

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