Algiers, June 2, 2011 (SPS) - The Algerian Delegate Minister in charge of Maghreb and African affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, asserted Wednesday in Algiers that Algeria reminds of the need to improve the human rights situation in Western Sahara, as has been confirmed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 1979.
Referring to the situation in Western Sahara during a press conference, Mr. Messahel reiterated the position of the United Nations on the "critical importance of the issue of human rights in the search for a solution to the conflict" in the Western Sahara.
He also pointed to the Security Council Resolution 1979 on "the need to improve the human rights situation in Western Sahara" and requiring the parties, Morocco and the Polisario Front, " to work with the international community to develop independent and credible procedures and apply them to ensure full respect for human rights."
The Minister also reminded that in accordance with the Resolution 1979 and previous resolutions of the Security Council, Ambassador Christopher Ross, the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, has invited for the parties to the conflict to hold seventh informal meeting June 5-7, in Manhasset, New York, intended, like the previous meetings, to prepare for the resumption of the fifth round of negotiations, which ceased in April 2008.
He explained that according to the formula adopted by the former Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Mr. James Baker, Algeria and Mauritania will be invited to participate in this meeting in their capacity as two neighboring countries and observers of the course of the negotiations.
The Minister point out that Mr. Christopher Ross has "always stressed" that the negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front are based on proposals submitted by the parties in 2007 and that "the solution to the conflict must enable the people of Western Sahara to exercise its right to freely determine its own destiny."