Rabat – The UN General Assembly this week adopted resolution A/RES/76/89 on the “Question of Western Sahara,” without a vote. The UNGA adopted the resolution on Thursday, December 9, as part of a series of “decolonization drafts” covering regions around the world.
The adoption of resolution A/RES/76/89 comes following another series of speeches at the UN’s fourth committee, known as the Special Political and Decolonization Committee. Discussions took place between August 23 and September 23 and featured various speeches in favor and against Morocco’s position.
The freshly adopted resolution features the same language seen in related resolutions over the past years. It officially expresses support for past resolutions and again emphasized the need for a “just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution.”
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New additions to the resolution are mentions of the UN’s examination of the UN Secretary General’s recent report on Western Sahara.
The resolution further “welcomes the commitment of the parties to continue to show political will and work in an atmosphere propitious for dialogue,” emphasizing the need to “enter into a more intensive phase of negotiations, in good faith and without preconditions.”
Echoing similar resolutions adopted in recent months and years, the UN again called upon “all the parties and the States of the region to cooperate fully with the Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy and with each other.”
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The resolution again shows the diminished role of the general assembly in regard to the Western Sahara conflict. The resolution upholds previous resolutions, issued between 2007 and today.
The resolution additionally calls for “achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara,” without reference to the outdated notion of a referendum that Polisario separatists continue to call for.
It confirms the centrality of the Security Council as the UN body with the legitimacy of finding a lasting political settlement to the Sahara dispute.
The resolution comes on the heels of the appointment of Staffan de Mistura as the personal envoy of the UN Secretary General for Western Sahara.
In line with the Security Council-led political process, De Mistura’s mission is to bring the conflicting parties together to negotiate a compromise-based and mutually acceptable political solution.
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