Western Sahara Peace Process
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Western Sahara Peace Process
The Western Sahara peace process refers to the international efforts to resolve the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict has failed so far to result in permanent peace between Morocco and the Polisario Front (including its self declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic). The standing issues of the peace process include Sahrawi refugees (specifically Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria), and human rights in Western Sahara. Background The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Polisario Front of the Sahrawi people and the state of Morocco. The conflict is the continuation of the past insurgency by Polisario against the Spanish colonial forces in 1973–1975 and the subsequent Western Sahara War between the Polisario and Morocco (1975–1991). Today the conflict is dominated by unarmed civil campaigns of the Polisario Front and their self-proclaimed SADR state to gain fully recognized independence for Western Sahara. The conflict escalated after the withdrawal ...
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Western Sahara Conflict
The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict originated from an insurgency by the Polisario Front against Spanish colonial forces from 1973 to 1975 and the subsequent Western Sahara War against Morocco between 1975 and 1991. Today the conflict is dominated by unarmed civil campaigns of the Polisario Front and their self-proclaimed SADR state to gain fully recognized independence for Western Sahara. The conflict escalated after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords. Beginning in 1975, the Polisario Front, backed and supported by Algeria, waged a 16-year-long war for independence against Mauritania and Morocco. In February 1976, the Polisario Front declared the establishment of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which was not admitted into the United Nations, but won limited recognition by a number of other states. Foll ...
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Independence Intifada (Western Sahara)
The Independence Intifada or the Second Sahrawi Intifada (''intifada'' is Arabic for "uprising") and also May Intifada is a Sahrawi activist term for a series of disturbances, demonstrations and riots that broke out in May 2005 in the Moroccan- controlled parts of Western Sahara and south of Morocco. This event has also been called The El-Aaiun Intifada by the same sources. Background Western Sahara, formerly Spanish Sahara, was annexed by Morocco in 1975, as Spain pulled out. A war with the Polisario Front, which according to the UN represent the indigenous Sahrawi population, and was backed by neighboring Algeria, ensued. In 1991 a cease-fire was agreed upon, on the condition of a referendum on self-determination (including the options of independence or integration into Morocco). Since 1991 the terms of a referendum have been subject to years of dispute between the parties, although the cease-fire continues to hold despite remaining tensions. Morocco controls the majorit ...
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United Nations Mission For The Referendum In Western Sahara
The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara ( ar, بعثة الأمم المتحدة لتنظيم استفتاء في الصحراء الغربية; french: Mission des Nations Unies pour l'Organisation d'un Référendum au Sahara Occidental; es, Misión de las Naciones Unidas para la Organización de un Referéndum en el Sáhara Occidental; MINURSO) is the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, established in 1991 under United Nations Security Council Resolution 690 as part of the Settlement Plan, which had paved way for a cease-fire in the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front (representing the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) over the contested territory of Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara). MINURSO's mission was to monitor the cease-fire and to organize and conduct a referendum in accordance with the Settlement Plan, which would enable the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara to choose between integration with Morocco and i ...
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1975 United Nations Visiting Mission To Spanish Sahara
To assist in the decolonization process of the Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara), a colony in North Africa, the United Nations General Assembly in 1975 dispatched a visiting mission to the territory and the surrounding countries, in accordance with its resolution 3292 (December 13, 1974). Purpose of the visiting mission The mission intended to investigate the political situation in the Spanish Sahara, as well as the conflicting claims to the territory: * Spain had administered the Spanish Sahara since the Berlin Congress in 1884, but had announced it was pulling out of the territory. A Madrid-backed political party, the Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui (PUNS), argued for a gradual transition to independence and demanded privileged relations between Spain and a future Western Sahara. * The Polisario Front, an indigenous anti-colonial organization that was waging a guerrilla war against Spanish forces since 1973, claimed the country for its inhabitants, the Sahrawis, and ...
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International Court Of Justice Advisory Opinion On Western Sahara
The International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on Western Sahara was a 1975 advisory, non-binding opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of two questions presented to it by the UN General Assembly under Resolution 3292 regarding the disputed territory of Western Sahara (then Spanish Sahara). Morocco had approached the UN to adjudicate its and Mauritania's claims over the territory. The ICJ deliberated between 13 December 1974 and 16 October 1975. The final ruling by the Court stated that: Background Morocco gained independence in 1956, and the Istiqlal Party presented its vision for the new state's boundaries. These nationalists appealed to the idea of a Greater Morocco, based upon the territory of the Sharifian empire which preceded French and British colonization. This area included what was at the time Spanish Sahara, French West Africa, and French Algeria. The Moroccan state itself formally adopted the 'Greater Morocco' vision under Mohammed V in 1958. ...
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Sahrawi Nationality Law
Sahrawi nationality law (also romanized with Saharawi) is the law of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) governing nationality and citizenship. The SADR is a partially recognized state which claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, but only administers part of it. The SADR also administers Sahrawi refugee camps. When Spain relinquished Spanish Sahara, there was no internationally recognized succession of states agreement that defined the terms of the transfer of authority to a new nation-state. Sovereignty has been disputed for nearly fifty years by the SADR and Morocco, which were engaged in open warfare until 1991 and have engaged in a more limited war since 2020. Despite a negotiated United Nations-administered 1991 ceasefire that included a settlement of to the state succession issue via a referendum that was agreed to by the parties to the dispute, the legal status of the territory has not been resolved since the referendum has yet to be he ...
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Government In Exile
A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usually plan to one day return to their native country and regain formal power. A government in exile differs from a rump state in the sense that a rump state controls at least part of its former territory. For example, during World War I, nearly all of Belgium was occupied by Germany, but Belgium and its allies held on to a small slice in the country's west. A government in exile, in contrast, has lost all its territory. However, in practice the difference might be minor; in the above example, the Belgian government at Sainte-Adresse was located in French territory and acted as a government in exile for most practical purposes. The governments in exile tend to occur during wartime occupation or in the aftermath of a civil war, revolution, ...
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Right Of Return
The right of return is a principle in international law which guarantees everyone's right of voluntary return to, or re-entry to, their country of origin or of citizenship. The right of return is part of the broader human rights concept freedom of movement and is also related to the legal concept of nationality. While many states afford their citizens the right of abode, the right of return is not restricted to citizenship or nationality in the formal sense. It allows stateless persons and for those born outside their country to return for the first time, so long as they have maintained a "genuine and effective link". The right is formulated in several modern treaties and conventions, most notably in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1948 Fourth Geneva Convention. Legal scholars have argued that one or more of these international human rights instruments have attained the status of customary intern ...
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Demographics Of Western Sahara
All data about demographic information regarding Western Sahara is extremely error-prone, regardless of source. Most countries take censuses every ten years, and some every five in order to stay abreast of change and miscounts; the last count was conducted in 1970, and even that data by colonial Spain is considered unreliable due to large nomadic populations. Following the 1975 Green March, the Moroccan state has sponsored settlement schemes enticing thousands of Moroccans to move into the Moroccan-occupied part of Western Sahara (80% of the territory). By 2015, it was estimated that Moroccan settlers made up at least two thirds of the 500,000 inhabitants. Under international law, Morocco's transfer of its own civilians into Non-Self-Governing territory is in direct violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (cf. Israeli and Turkish settlers). The religion in Western Sahara is Sunni Islam. The major ethnic groups are Arab and Berbers. The most common language is ...
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Southern Provinces
The Southern Provinces ( ar, الأقاليم الجنوبية, Al-Aqalim al-Janubiyah, french: Provinces du Sud) or Moroccan Sahara ( ar, الصحراء المغربية, Assahra al-Maghribiya, french: Sahara marocain) are the terms used by the Moroccan government for the disputed territory of Western Sahara. These two Moroccan terms explicitly include all of Western Sahara, which spans three of the country's 12 top-level administrative regions. A frequent use of the term "Southern Provinces" is found for example in Moroccan state television (such as weather forecasts, displayed maps on the news, and government statements). Background Western Sahara was previously a Spanish colony known as the Spanish Sahara. Towards the 1970s, Spain faced increasing pressure from Morocco to hand over the territory, culminating in the Green March, a mass demonstration coordinated by the Moroccan government that was launched on November 6, 1975. The Green March was organized to pressure Spain i ...
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Green March
The Green March was a strategic mass demonstration in November 1975, coordinated by the Moroccan government, to force Spain to hand over the disputed, autonomous semi-metropolitan province of Spanish Sahara to Morocco. At that time, the Spanish government was preparing to abandon the territory as part of the decolonization of Africa, just as it had previously granted independence to Equatorial Guinea in 1968. The Sahrawi people aspired to form an independent state. The demonstration of some 350,000 Moroccans advanced several kilometres into the Western Sahara territory. Morocco later gained control over most of the former Spanish Sahara, which it continues to hold. The Green March was condemned by the international community, notably in United Nations Security Council Resolution 380, as the march was considered an attempt to bypass the International Court of Justice's ''Advisory opinion on Western Sahara'' that had been issued three weeks prior. Morocco gained control of m ...
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