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Minurso
The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (; ; ; 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 independence. This was intended to constitute a Sahrawi exercise of self-determination, and thus complete Western Sahara's still-unfinished process of decolonization (Western Sahara is the last major territory remaining on the UN's list of non-decolonized territories.) Mandate According to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baker Plan
The Baker Plan is a United Nations initiative to grant self-determination to Western Sahara initially proposed by UN special envoy James Baker in 2000. It was intended to replace the Settlement Plan of 1991, which was further detailed in the Houston Agreement of 1997. Background Western Sahara's administration by Morocco since 1975 is challenged by Polisario guerillas living in exile in neighbouring Algeria. Since 1991, a ceasefire has been in place, accepted by both parties with the understanding that the UN would organize a referendum on independence. The 1991 referendum plan was stalled, however, due to disagreements on voter eligibility. Morocco demanded the inclusion of all people now living in the territory, including all Moroccan settlers. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Nations Security Council Resolution 690
United Nations Security Council resolution 690, was adopted unanimously on 29 April 1991. After recalling resolutions 621 (1988) and 658 (1990) and noting a report by the Secretary-General on the situation in Western Sahara, the Council approved the report and decided to establish the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) in accordance with the Secretary-General's recommendations. The Mission was to implement the Settlement Plan for a referendum of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara. The Council called upon Morocco and the Polisario Front to co-operate with the Secretary-General and the Mission, expressing its full support to him and the Organisation of African Unity for their efforts. It also decided that the transitional period will begin no later than sixteen weeks after the General Assembly approves the budget of MINURSO. In May 1991, the General Assembly approved the budget. A ceasefire came into effect on 6 September 199 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Ivanko
Alexander Sergeyevich Ivanko ( born March 7, 1962, in Moscow) is an international civil servant, currently serving as the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara and head of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. Biography Ivanko was born on March 7, 1962, in Moscow. His father, Sergey Sergeyevich Ivanko, was a Soviet journalist and diplomat. Alexander graduated from the Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University in 1984. Journalism career He began his career as a journalist with the newspaper ''Izvestia'', where he worked from 1984 to 1994, covering significant events such as the war in Afghanistan in 1989. From 1992 to 1994, he worked for the newspaper '' We/Mi'', a joint project with the Hearst corporation. Work in international institutions Since 1994, Ivanko has worked for the UN, starting as a member of the UNPROFOR mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later serving as the UN spokesperson in the same country. Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of a dependent territory or colony. The commemoration of the independence day of a country or nation celebrates when a country is free from all forms of colonialism; free to build a country or nation without any interference from other nations. Definition Whether the attainment of independence is different from revolution has long been contested, and has often been debated over the question of violence as legitimate means to achieving sovereignty. In general, revolutions aim only to redistribute power with or without an element of emancipation, such as in democratization ''within'' a state, which as such may remain unaltered. For example, the Mexican Revolution (1910) chiefly refers to a multi-factional conflict that eventually led to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini; and it encloses Lesotho. Covering an area of , the country has Demographics of South Africa, a population of over 64 million people. Pretoria is the administrative capital, while Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament of South Africa, Parliament, is the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is regarded as the judicial capital. The largest, most populous city is Johannesburg, followed by Cape Town and Durban. Cradle of Humankind, Archaeological findings suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa about 2.5 million years ago, and modern humans inhabited the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Rights In Western Sahara
The Government of Morocco sees Western Sahara as its Southern Provinces. The Moroccan government considers the Polisario Front as a separatist movement given the alleged Moroccan origins of some of its leaders. The Polisario Front argues that according to international organizations, like the United Nations or the African Union, the territory of Western Sahara has the right of self-determination, and that according to those organizations Morocco illegally occupies the parts of Western Sahara under its control. Polisario regards this as a consequence of the vision of a Great Morocco, fuelled in the past by the Istiqlal and Hassan II, and considers itself a national liberation movement aiming at leading the disputed territory to independence under the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The European Union, the African Union and the United Nations do not recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara. Human rights The Western Sahara conflict has resulted in severe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demographics Of Western Sahara
All data about demographic information regarding Western Sahara are extremely error-prone, regardless of source. The last official census was conducted by Spain in 1970, and 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. The religion in Western Sahara is Sunni Islam. The major ethnic groups are Arab and Berbers. The most common languages are Hassaniya Arabic and Moroccan Arabic. CIA World Factbook demographic statistics The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Provinces
The Southern Provinces or Moroccan Sahara are the terms used by the Moroccan government to refer to the occupied territory of Western Sahara. These designations encompass the entirety of Western Sahara, which spans three of Morocco's 12 top-level administrative regions. The term "Southern Provinces" is frequently used on Moroccan state television (e.g. weather forecasts, news maps, and official statements) and in mass media while the nomenclature associated with the Polisario Front and the Sahrawi state is censored and occasionally penalized. Background Western Sahara was formerly a Spanish colony known as the Spanish Sahara. In the 1970s, Spain faced mounting pressure from Morocco to relinquish the territory, culminating in the Green March, a large-scale demonstration organized by the Moroccan government on November 6, 1975 in order to compel Spain to transfer Western Sahara to Morocco. The Madrid Accords, ratified just 12 days after the Green March, stipulated that Spain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Settler Colonialism
Settler colonialism is a logic and structure of displacement by Settler, settlers, using colonial rule, over an environment for replacing it and its indigenous peoples with settlements and the society of the settlers. Settler colonialism is a form of Exogeny, exogenous (of external origin, coming from the outside) domination typically organized or supported by an Imperialism, imperial authority, which maintains a connection or control to the territory through the settler's colonialism. Settler colonialism contrasts with exploitation colonialism, where the imperial power Conquest, conquers territory to exploit the Natural resource, natural resources and gain a source of cheap or free Work (human activity), labor. As settler colonialism entails the creation of a new society on the conquered territory, it lasts indefinitely unless decolonisation occurs through departure of the settler population or through reforms to colonial structures, settler-indigenous compacts and reconcilia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green March
The Green March was a strategic mass demonstration in November 1975, coordinated by the Moroccan government and military, to force Spain to hand over the disputed, autonomous semi-metropolitan province of Spanish Sahara to Morocco. The Spanish government was preparing to abandon the territory as part of the decolonization of Africa, just as it had granted independence to Equatorial Guinea in 1968. The native inhabitants, the Sahrawi people, aspired to form an independent state. The demonstration of 350,000 Moroccans advanced several kilometers into the Western Sahara territory. Morocco later gained control of most of the former Spanish Sahara, which it continues to hold. The Green March was condemned by the international community, notably in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 380. 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 earlier. Morocco gained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Houston Agreement
The Houston Agreement was the result of negotiations between the Polisario Front and Morocco on the organization of a referendum, which would constitute an expression of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, possibly leading to full independence or integration within Morocco. The talks were conducted during 1997 in Houston, United States, under the auspices of United Nations representative James Baker, using the framework of the 1991 Settlement Plan. The agreement was supposed to lead to a referendum in 1998, after it had been prevented from taking place in 1992 as originally envisioned. The Baker Accord was signed at Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University under the aegis of United Nations Security Council between 14th and 16 September 1997. in Houston and came to be known as Houston Accord. Both the parties signed the final document listing out all agreements, and was documented as UN doc. S/1997/742 par 4-13. It was the first time in the peace process ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 20,305 staff working in 136 countries as of December 2023. Background The office of High Commissioner for Refugees has existed since 1921, when it was created by the League of Nations with Norwegian scientist Fridtjof Nansen as its first occupant. The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was created in 1946 to address the refugee crisis that resulted from World War II. The United Nations established the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1950 as the successor of the IRO. The 1951 Refugee Convention established the scope and legal framework of the agency's work, which initially focused on Europeans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
