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Question of Western Sahara: Report of the Secretary-General (A/71/224) [EN/AR]

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Western Sahara
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UN GA
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Summary

The present report, submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 70/98 of 9 December 2015, summarizes the most recent report submitted by the Secretary-General to the Security Council on the situation concerning Western Sahara (S/2016/355) and covers the period from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016.

  1. On 9 December 2015, the General Assembly adopted without a vote resolution 70/98 on the question of Western Sahara. The present report, covering the period from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016, is submitted in accordance with paragraph 7 of the aforementioned resolution.

  2. The Security Council addresses Western Sahara as a matter of peace and security, calling in successive resolutions for a “mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara”. The Fourth Committee of the General Assembly (the Special Political and Decolonization Committee) and the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples address it as a Non-Self-Governing Territory and an issue of decolonization.

  3. Pursuant to Security Council resolution 2218 (2015), I submitted a report to the Security Council on the situation concerning Western Sahara (S/2016/355). In that report, I informed the Council of the situation on the ground, the status and the progress of the political negotiations on Western Sahara, my activities and those of my Chef de Cabinet and my Personal Envoy and the existing challenges to the operations of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), as well as steps taken to address them, in keeping with the request of the Security Council in its resolution 2218 (2015).

  4. West of the berm, public life proceeded peacefully during the reporting period. On 4 September, municipal elections and, for the first time, regional elections were held in Morocco and Western Sahara west of the berm. Insofar as MINURSO could attest, the elections took place without incident west of the berm despite the contested status of the entire territory. King Mohammed VI visited Laayoune in November 2015 and Dakhla in February 2016. On 6 November, he delivered his annual speech on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the “Green March” from Laayoune. He stated that the autonomy initiative “is the most Morocco can offer” and that “[i]ts implementation hinges on achieving a final political settlement within the framework of the United Nations”. He added that the integration of the territory into unified Morocco would be conducted principally through the “development model for the southern provinces”. On 12 November and 15 February, the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, wrote to me indicating that the initiative would consist of projects in the phosphate, agricultural, fisheries and tourism sectors and that its global budget would be $7.7 billion.

  5. In a statement on 4 November, I recalled that the definitive status of Western Sahara is the object of the negotiating process under my purview foreseen in successive relevant Security Council resolutions. I expressed regret at the absence of genuine negotiations “without preconditions and in good faith to achieve a mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara”. On 5 November, Mr. Hilale called on me to express Morocco’s dismay at the content and the timing of the statement. He stressed that the use of the term “definitive status” was new and in contradiction of Security Council resolutions, which called simply for “a mutually acceptable political solution”. On 17 November, the Secretary-General of Frente Polisario, Mohamed Abdelaziz, wrote to me welcoming my call for true negotiations, affirming Polisario support and warning that the “conflict cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely”.

  6. In the refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, public life and social activities were conducted peacefully and in a relatively calm atmosphere. As agreed with Algeria and Frente Polisario, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) carried out a technical visit to the refugee camps near Tindouf from 29 July to 4 August 2015. The visit enabled OHCHR to gather first-hand information and gain a greater understanding of the human rights situation and challenges in the refugee camps. The visit also enabled OHCHR to explore future forms of cooperation to ensure effective human rights protection for all. A similar visit was carried out, as jointly agreed with Morocco, to Laayoune and Dakhla in Western Sahara in April 2015.

  7. The humanitarian situation in the refugee camps remained challenging. The severe living conditions, already affected by a continuing decrease in humanitarian aid, deteriorated further in October 2015 as a result of prolonged heavy rains that devastated the five camps, destroying many of the refugees’ mud-brick homes, infrastructure and food supplies. The inter-agency appeal released for the emergency response received limited funding, allowing implementation of only part of the planned activities. Similarly, lack of funding continued to affect other regular refugee programmes in the camps.