Human rights advocates continue to press for compliance with international law in Western Sahara and to counter attempts to undermine the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.
The Association of Families of Sahrawi Prisoners and the Disappeared (AFAPREDESA) emphasized that the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination is inalienable, a right clearly established by UN General Assembly resolutions since 1963.
The association cited in a statement the Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, which enshrines colonized and oppressed peoples’ right to self-determination and independence, as well as the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion (October 1975) confirming the absence of any territorial sovereignty ties between Western Sahara and Morocco.
The association also referenced rulings by the European Court of Justice affirming that no EU-Morocco agreement can apply to Western Sahara without explicit consent from the Sahrawi people through their sole legitimate representative, the Polisario Front, condemning all attempts to undermine this right.
In this regard, AFAPREDESA denounced EU’s efforts to circumvent the rulings of the Court and to perpetuate the systematic plundering of Sahrawi natural resources, which it says sustains the occupation and worsens severe, ongoing human rights violations in the territory.
AFAPREDESA issued an urgent appeal to the United Nations calling for the rejection of any actions that undermine the essence of the right to self-determination and the mandate under which the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was established.
The association concluded its statement by reaffirming the Sahrawi people’s continued legitimate struggle for justice, freedom, full sovereignty over their natural resources, and complete respect for their human rights.
It demanded Moroccan occupation’s “immediate” withdrawal of forces and an end to its the illegal occupation.
The association also called on the EU to end its complicity with the occupation and the brazen participation in the plundering of Sahrawi resources.
