For the better part of my adult life, I’ve watched the Western Sahara issue unfold not as a distant diplomatic squabble, but as an enduring human story, refugees in desert camps, families separated by borders, political deadlock that lasted decades. When the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2797 in late 2025, it marked one of the clearest shifts in tone and substance in years. But turning a resolution into human wellbeing is not automatic.

When I look at long conflicts, I always ask three questions:

1. How did we get here?

2. Who really holds influence?

3. What would change for ordinary people if a deal finally sticks?

Applying that lens to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2797, the picture becomes clearer, and more pragmatic.

The adoption of Resolution 2797 by the United Nations Security Council on October 31, 2025, marks a pivotal moment in the longstanding Western Sahara dispute. By establishing Morocco's autonomy plan as the "basis" for any political solution, the UN text confirms a profound shift in international perspectives on this issue. For the first time, the option of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty has emerged as the central path forward, effectively sidelining the independence referendum.

As time passes, one of the key pillars on which the Polisario Front and Algeria have built their narrative in the Western Sahara conflict is crumbling: the 1974 Spanish census. Today, more than fifty years later, this dataset is no longer valid as a basis for any referendum on self-determination. Most of those registered are deceased, and the Polisario can no longer prove that its current members have any genuine link to the territory.

Participants in the 2nd Policy Conference of the Coalition for Autonomy in the Sahara (AUSACO), held Tuesday in Dakhla, called for a redefinition of the United Nations' approach to the Moroccan Sahara dispute, citing shifting geopolitical dynamics.

In the Final Declaration, known as the “Dakhla Declaration,” AUSACO members urged a reassessment of the issue’s parameters, emphasizing Morocco’s autonomy plan as the only credible and realistic basis for a political solution.