Rabat – The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on December 13 approved by the 4th Committee last October. The resolution adopted without a vote reiterates the assembly’s support for the UN-led political process to settle the regional dispute over Western Sahara.
The resolution calls on all parties to fully cooperate with the UN Secretary-General to achieve a political solution to this regional dispute.
The adopted resolution also supports the political process based on UN Security Council resolutions since 2007 to reach a just, durable, and mutually acceptablepolitical solution to the conflict.
The text of the resolution also commends the efforts made to solve the conflicts, calling on all parties to fully cooperate with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as well as with each other to find a “political solution that is mutually acceptable.”
The UNGA also acknowledged that the parties in the conflict are committed to continuing to show political will. The parties demonstrate their ability to work in an “atmosphere propitious for dialogue, on the basis of efforts made and new facts since 2006, thus ensuring the implementation of the Security Council’s resolutions since 2007.”
The resolution, according to Maghreb Arab Press (MAP), expresses the support of the UNGA to resolutions of the Security Council since 2007, “which stressed the pre-eminence of the autonomy initiative presented by Morocco, hailed by the executive body and the entire international community as a serious and credible initiative for the final settlement of this regional dispute.”
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The UNGA’s text also expressed support for the recommendations of the Security Council Resolution 2440 and 2468, adopted respectively in October 2018 and April 2019, and supported by resolution 2494 dated October 30, 2019.
The said resolutions, MAP added, set the parameters of the solution to the regional dispute over the Western Sahara, particularly a political, realistic, pragmatic, and durable solution of compromise.
The resolution also recalled the efforts of the former Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Horst Kohler, who convened the parties to the conflict in two roundtables in December 2018 and March 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Resolutions 2440, 2468, and 2494 of the UN Security Council fostered the round-table process and specified the parties to the conflict: Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the Polisario.
Resolutions 2468 and 2494 cite Algeria five times similarly to Morocco.
These Security Council resolutions also welcome the measures and initiatives taken by Morocco to promote and protect human rights in its southern provinces. Additionally, the resolutions welcomethe role played by the National Council of Human Rights committees in Laayoune and Dakhla, as well as Morocco’s interaction with the UNHRC mechanisms.
The resolutions also reiterate the UN request for the registration and census of populations in the Tindouf camps, and call for making the necessary efforts to this end.
Resolutions 2414 (April 2018), 2440, 2468, and 2494 enjoined the Polisario to withdraw from the Guergarate buffer zone and to cease all destabilizing actions east of the defense structure in Western Sahara, and to refrain from any action likely to undermine the UN political process.
