A review of the Western Saharan conflict following Israel’s recognition of Morocco’s unlawful occupation of the territory

What happened?

On Monday August 17, 2023, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally announced Israel’s recognition of Morocco’s claim over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. This move makes the country the second to officially recognise Morocco’s sovereignty over the region, after Donald Trump tweeted United States recognition in December 2020. The move happened as the second part of the US-brokered “Abraham Accords”, a set of normalisation agreements that began with Morocco when the country recognised Israel that same year.

Two days after, Morocco’s king Mohammed VI wrote a personal letter to the Israeli prime minister inviting him for his first official visit that ­“would open new opportunities for strengthening bilateral relations”. As Israel is presently considering opening a consulate in the Saharawi city of Dakhla, Morocco hopes for the event to encourage Israeli investment in the Occupied Territories.

Western Sahara: a territory pending decolonisation since 1975

Covering an area of approximately 266 000 km², Western Sahara is situated south of Morocco, east of Algeria, and borders Mauritania to the south and the Atlantic Sea to the west. The indigenous population, native to the land, are called Saharawis. From 1884, when Spain declared the territory a protectorate, until six days prior to the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, Western Sahara was under direct Spanish colonial rule.

Rather than following the 1963 UN decolonisation protocol for Western Sahara, the Spanish government handed de facto control of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania during the secretly signed Madrid Accords of 1975. The agreement occurred days after 350 000 Moroccan civilians answered to king Hassan II’s strategic call to reunite “Greater Morocco” and initiated the Green March into Western Sahara. This is despite the fact that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague had issued an advisory opinion on the case of Western Sahara earlier that year, stating that no clear historical ties between the people of Western Sahara and Morocco could be established.

The Green March, which was condemned under the UN Security Council resolution 380, was shortly followed by Moroccan and Mauritanian military invasions from the north and the south respectively. Around 150 000 Saharawis were forced to flee and seek safety in Algeria, where they were granted permission to establish refugee camps in the desert region of Tindouf. Amidst the harsh climatic and dire humanitarian conditions of the camps, the Saharawis have managed over the years to recreate a state in exile with organised institutions under the government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The SADR is a member of the African Union and has been recognised at some point by up to 43.5% of UN member states. It was established by the POLISARIO Front on February 25, 1976, in Bir Lehlou (Western Sahara).

An abbreviation for Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro, the POLISARIO Front is the Saharawi National Liberation Movement and was founded in May 1973, primarily by a group of young Saharawi university students, who initially directed their anticolonial struggle against Spanish forces. Following the Madrid Accords, the POLISARIO subsequently fought Mauritania until July 1978 when the country withdrew from the war and signed a peace treaty with the liberation movement. Saharawis continued fighting Morocco until the UN-brokered truce in 1991 under the promise of an independence referendum which has yet to occur.

Frustrated with the inaction of political powers, the armed struggle resumed in 2020, after what started as a civil protest in the Saharawi village of Guerguerat against a road construction connecting Morocco to Mauritania resulted in clashes between POLISARIO and Moroccan forces. Confrontations have been taking place sporadically since then. Today, the POLISARIO controls around 20% of Western Sahara, termed “liberated territories” or “free zone”, while 80% remain under full Moroccan control.

International law challenges Morocco’s claims

Morocco’s underlying reason for its claim of territorial integrity is the historical interpretation that prior to Spanish colonialism, the nomadic Saharan tribes had offered their allegiance to the Moroccan dynasties. However, the investigation carried by the UN, briefly mentioned earlier, revealed that these allegiances were based on personal and religious loyalty to the Moroccan Sultan, and did not amount to an acceptance of any political authority, which is necessary to claim sovereignty over the territory. Anthropological research further notes the differences in Moroccan and Saharawi cultures, noticeable in clothing, social customs, music, traditions, or the fact that both populations speak different Arabic dialects; Moroccans speak Darija and Saharawis Hassania. These specificities formed the basis for the subsequent recognition in 1979 of the POLISARIO as the sole representative of the Saharawi people by the UN General Assembly’s resolution 34/37.

The consequence of this muddled decolonisation process today is that, still featuring on the UN list of non-self-governing territories (Article 73 of the UN Charter), Spain remains the de jure administrative power of Western Sahara until a referendum takes place, making Morocco an occupying power. This is despite Spanish president Pedro Sanchez’s unexpected decision in 2022 to recognise Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara, which is explained by analysts as an effort to maintain friendly ties with Morocco for migration management cooperation.

Western Sahara’s classification under article 73 and Spain’s UN membership means that Spain cannot unilaterally transfer sovereignty of a territory without consulting its inhabitants and cannot legally relinquish its responsibilities. The ICJ’s findings that no sovereignty links exist between the concerned populations, and that the territory is not terra nullius, grants Saharawis the right to self-determination as reaffirmed on many instances by the Un General Assembly. Such right is a sacred principle enshrined in the UN Charter as one of the four pillars of international legality. It is an individual and collective right to “freely determine…political status and [to] freely pursue…economic, social, and cultural development”.

In an attempt to settle the ongoing territorial dispute and given Spain’s passivity, the UN launched its peacekeeping Mission for the referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) along with the ceasefire in 1991. The MINURSO was tasked with enabling Saharawis to vote on the issue of either independence or integration into Morocco. Identification of eligible voters in the referendum began that same year 1and registration was finalised in 1994. However, the vote never took place as both sides conflicted over eligibility. The POLISARIO saw the 1972 Spanish population census on Western Sahara as providing the most comprehensive list of Saharawi inhabitants, but this has been systematically rejected by Morocco, who has attempted to enlarge the voting rolls with rejected Moroccan applicants that have moved to the area post-annexation.

Given the absence of any legitimisation from international or humanitarian law, Morocco’s efforts to consolidate their presence in Western Sahara amount to illegal practices. For example, the country’s transfer of its own citizens to Western Sahara with attractive policies such as affordable housing and higher salaries in an attempt to change the population’s ethnic composition for the referendum is a direct violation of article 49 of the 4^th Geneva Convention stating that “the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”. At around 500 000, Moroccan settlers constitute over 2/3 of Western Sahara’s population today. Another feature of the illegal occupation is the 2 700 km long Western Saharan Wall, first built in 1980 by Morocco in order to separate the Moroccan controlled areas with the liberated territories and prevent POLISARIO activity. It was supported by South Korean, Israeli and apartheid South African advisors and is fortified with bunkers, fences, surveillance equipment and what is believed to be the longest minefield in the world.

ACHRS’ position

In line with our condemnation of Israel’s illegal annexation of the West Bank as determined by numerous UN resolutions, ACHRS continues to stand behind international law and international human rights principles on the issue of Western Sahara. We call for an end to the illegal occupation of the territory and support the right to self-determination of its indigenous population. Morocco’s occupation enables the direct economic exploitation of Western Sahara’s natural resources in which, according to research carried by the European Center for Constitutional and Human rights, several European companies are involved. In 2002, UN legal advisor Hans Corell expressed that the consent of the people native to an area from which resources are extracted needs to be obtained to exploit them legally. This requirement was reiterated in 2016, 2018 and 2021 when the Saharawi population represented by the POLISARIO won the three court hearings at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg. It was ruled that EU-Moroccan free trade agreements were unlawful given that several goods originating from Western Sahara were labelled as Moroccan without Saharawi authorisation.

Furthermore, we denounce the numerous human rights abuses that continue to be committed against Saharawis living in occupied Western Sahara. A detailed 2022 Amnesty International report on the state of human rights in Occupied Western Saharaparticularly highlights:

Repressions on freedom of expression- At least 7 journalists and people expressing solidarity with Saharawi activists have been imprisoned.

Grave violations of their right to privacy- An Amnesty security control conducted in March 2022 revealed that human rights activist Aminatou Haidar had two telephones hacked since 2018 and 2021 by the Israeli spyware Pegasus.

Violations of freedom of association and assembly– Moroccan authorities often use excessive force during peaceful Saharawi protests. Student journalist Abdelmounaim Naceri was beaten until he lost consciousness for filming a sit-in of young Saharawis demanding better social conditions in the occupied Saharawi city of Smara. In addition, the government refused to register the newly elected committee of the Saharawi Association of Victims of Grave Violations of Human Rights Committed by the Moroccan State.

Use of gender-based violence to repress Saharawi activism– UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders denounced in April 2022 state agents committed physical and psychological violence against 12 Saharawi women for expressing their solidarity with Saharawi activist Sultana Khaya. In May 2022, Khaya travelled to Spain to seek medical treatment over the tortures she endured while under house arrest in 2020. No investigations has been conducted into any of the assaults.

The absence of a human rights mandate in the yearly renewal of the MINURSO means that human rights organisations are unable to formally access Western Sahara in order to monitor the ongoing situation. ACHRS calls for the passing of such necessary human rights mandate and for countries to end their complicity in the occupation, be it by politically recognising the occupation or having their companies benefit economically from it at the expense of the Saharawi population.

Further resources

For a better understanding of the situation in Western Sahara, Madrid-based NGO Nomads HRC have compiled a comprehensive list of free audio-visual resources, from documentaries to dramas and short films which address the numerous human rights issues faced by Saharawis in the Occupied Territories, exile, and the wider diaspora.