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International Platform for Defense and Support for the Western Sahara Calls on International Community to Support Search for Political Solution on the Basis of Moroccan Autonomy Plan

International Platform for Defense and Support for the Western Sahara Calls on International Community to Support Search for Political Solution on the Basis of Moroccan Autonomy Plan

The 3,000 members of the International Platform for Defense and Support for the Moroccan Sahara have called on the entire international community, represented by the Security Council, to support the search for a realistic, practicable, and enduring political solution, that rests on compromise to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, on a single and the exclusive basis of the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative.

 

The International Platform, which brings together lawyers, academics, journalists and civil society actors, voices, in a press release, its "full support to the Initiative for the Negotiation of a Statute of Autonomy for the Moroccan Sahara Region, as the one and only solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara".

 

The members of the platform reaffirm, in this regard, that the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative is the only solution that can guarantee the exercise of the right to self-determination of the population of the Moroccan Sahara.

 

They also underlined that they remain committed "to defending the Morocanity of the Sahara and the pre-eminence of the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative in academia, the media, and civil society in our respective countries".

 

The members of the Platform welcome with satisfaction the outcome adopted during the virtual Ministerial Conference, co-organized by Morocco and the United States, on January 15, 2021, in which some 40 countries participated, to support the Initiative of Autonomy under Moroccan Sovereignty, as the only option to definitively resolve this regional dispute.

 

They also welcome the historic decision of the United States to fully recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara, noting that they welcome even more "the fact that this decision emanates a democratic world power, a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council and a guarantor of a world order based on international law."

 

"Such a position is the only one that is in line with the international law, taking into consideration that the Morocanity of the Sahara is attested at the historical and the legal levels and starting from the fundamental norm of the territorial integrity of States," the release reads.

 

The members of the Platform also commend the positive impact of the American decision of opening a Consulate General in Dakhla aiming at promoting investment in the region, noting, in this regard, that the continuous dynamic of the openings of the Consulates General by several countries in Laayoune and Dakhla, consolidating, hence, the position of the southern Moroccan provinces as a regional and a continental economic hub.

 

The International Platform for Defense and Support for the Moroccan Sahara denounces Algeria’s actions, since 1975, that aim at undermining the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Morocco, in violation of the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration on the Principles of International Law on Friendly Relations between States, borne by General Assembly resolution 2625.

 

The Platform also condemns the arming of the “polisario” by Algeria, "which constitutes a serious violation of the Charter of the United Nations and International Law."

 

The members of the platform denounce the fundamental Human Rights violations, committed in Tindouf camps, "as a result of the illegal delegation, by Algeria, of the authority over this part of Algerian territory to an armed separatist group, in flagrant violation of International Humanitarian Law."

 

The Platform calls on Algeria to respect its obligations under International Humanitarian Law and put an end to the situation of absence of law that prevails in the Tindouf camps, following the illegal delegation of authority over the camps to the “polisario”, a situation that allows the occurrence of the worst Human Rights violations in this part of the Algerian territory.

 

It also calls on Algeria, as the main party to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, to abandon its dogmatic positions and to commit to continuing its participation in a spirit of realism and compromise in the UN Round Table process to ensure a successful outcome, based on the Moroccan Initiative of Autonomy.

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