New York, September 27, 2015 (SPS) The African Union (AU) Peace and Security (PSC) has adopted an important decision in which it urged the UN Security Council to fully assume its responsibilities, take all necessary measures to rapidly resolve the Western Sahara conflict and find an effective response to issues related to respect for human rights and the illegal exploitation of natural resources of the territory.
Meeting Saturday in New York at the level of Heads of State and Government, on the sidelines of the works of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Peace and Security Council reiterated the African Union's commitment to continue to work to find a rapid solution to the Western Sahara conflict on the basis of international legality and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and African Union and to work closely with the United Nations."
In this regard, the Council encourages the Presidency of the Commission to continue and intensify its efforts, including through its Special Envoy, Joaquim Chissano, former President of Mozambique, for the effective monitoring of the relevant provisions of the communiquéof the Peace and Security Council.
The Peaceand Security Council of the African Union reiterated, furthermore, the call by the 25th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union in paragraph 18 of its resolution to the UN General Assembly to set a date for the holding of a referendum of self-determination of the people of Western Sahara and protects the integrity of Western Sahara as a non-autonomous territory, keeping in mind the advisory opinion of the ICJ on 16 October 1975, the council requests the AU group in New York, in consultation with the permanent observer mission of the African Union to take actions necessary to this effect. "
The Peace and Security Council expressed its deep concern about the fact that despite sustained efforts that have been made, including by successive personal envoys of the UN SG, no progress was recorded in the search for a solution to the conflict in Western Sahara whichhas stalledfor overfourdecades.
A delegation from SADR led by the MFA, Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, and the Polisario Front representative to the United Nations, Ahmed Boukhari, took part in the meeting at the invitation of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union. (SPS)
062/090/TRA