UN General Assembly's 81st Session Highlights Sahrawi Rights
The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly has once again served as a pivotal platform advocating for justice concerning the Sahrawi cause and the inalienable right of its people to self-determination and independence. This gathering has effectively diminished the illusions surrounding Moroccan occupation and its maneuvers aimed at entrenching colonial realities in the occupied territory. During the high-level general debate of the 81st UNGA session, the legal and moral responsibilities of the international organization towards the Sahrawi territory and its people were underscored, thus practically invalidating Moroccan claims of sovereignty over the region.
In this context, the President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, reiterated during her address at this session her country's unwavering support for the Sahrawi cause. She emphasized the necessity of finding a fair and lasting solution that guarantees the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination within the framework of the United Nations process. Moreover, Geingob asserted that the UN bears the responsibility of driving towards a just and lasting resolution to the Western Sahara issue, aligning with the UN Charter and relevant resolutions concerning decolonization and the right to self-determination. Namibia expressed its support for the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and called for a UN-supported referendum in Western Sahara, allowing the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination.
International Support for Sahrawi Self-Determination
The Sahrawi delegation in New York engaged in numerous meetings with heads of state and officials, providing an opportunity to renew support for the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination and independence. During a meeting with the Sahrawi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, the President of Angola, João Lourenço, reiterated his country’s support for the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination and independence, in harmony with the principles of the UN Charter and the foundational laws of the African Union. Additionally, Ould Salek held bilateral meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations of Lesotho, Limpho Tau, and the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who both reaffirmed their countries' principled and steadfast positions in support of the Sahrawi cause and unconditional backing for the Sahrawi people's right to freedom and self-determination.
Despite the overt diplomatic maneuvers employed by the Moroccan regime to garner international support for its colonial agenda, including the purchasing of support from various nations for a fictitious recognition of its alleged sovereignty over Western Sahara, the UN Secretary-General's report on Western Sahara, dated July 31, 2026, presented to the 81st General Assembly, confirmed that the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (the Fourth Committee) and the Special Committee on the Situation of the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples consider Western Sahara as a decolonization issue. This report further emphasizes that Morocco's attempts to secure recognition of its alleged sovereignty do not alter the legal status of the territory as one awaiting decolonization and do not undermine the decisions of the Security Council, which underline the necessity of adhering to the UN Charter and ensuring the right to self-determination for the region's inhabitants.
During this session, the Moroccan representative attempted to impose unilateral proposals as a fait accompli and presented distortions while attempting to misrepresent the international status of the Western Sahara issue. The Sahrawi government deemed this a continuation of the Moroccan regime's habitual tactics to divert domestic public attention from its deep structural crisis. In a statement published on Thursday, the Sahrawi government indicated that the "Minister of Foreign Affairs of the occupying state attempted to mislead member states by offering his erroneous interpretation and selective reading of Security Council Resolution 2797. The indisputable fact is that the Security Council has not recognized the Moroccan occupying state’s sovereignty over the occupied Western Sahara, nor has it stated that the occupying state’s expansionist proposal is the sole basis for a solution. Furthermore, it was the Moroccan occupying state that violated the ceasefire on November 13, 2020, as confirmed by the UN Secretary-General's reports."
In addition to its expansionist policies, the Sahrawi government recalled the actions undertaken by the Moroccan regime that threaten regional and international security and stability, including flooding the region with drugs and supporting and financing cross-border terrorist groups and organized crime. It noted that the occupying state’s minister neglected to mention its alliances with the world's rogue elements to threaten the security of its neighbors, and its compromising of the present and future of its own people while using them to destabilize the region and engage in political extortion. Based on these grounds, the Sahrawi government cautioned that "a state that continues to violate the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, pursues expansion and occupation policies, and threatens regional security and stability lacks the political and legal capacity to occupy a seat in an international body established primarily to maintain international peace and security."
As reported by ech-chaab.com.
