New York, December 10, 2018 (SPS) - The United Nations General Assembly adopted, in its 73rd session, 36 resolutions and 4 decisions relating to issues of decolonization, including that relating to Western Sahara.
In the same document, the special committee in charge of studying the situation concerning the implementation of the Declaration on granting independence to colonial countries and peoples is called to continue monitoring the situation in Western Sahara and to present a report on the issue in the 74th General Assembly.
The decision emphasized “the irrevocable right of all peoples to self-determination and independence, in accordance with the principles of UN Charter and the resolution 1514 of the General Assembly on the declaration on the granting of independence to colonial peoples and countries.”
Underlining the decisions of the General Assembly and of the international Security Council, the document cites the General Assembly’s decision, pointing out that the possible options for self-determination remain valid insofar as they are in line with the wills freely expressed by the interested population and the principles defined clearly in the resolutions of the General Assembly.
The General Assembly also welcomed the meeting between the two sides to the conflict, Morocco and the Polisario Front, under the aegis of Horst Kohler, UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Western Sahara, in the presence of two neighboring countries, namely Algeria and Mauritania, and of their agreement to continue negotiations.
While reiterating UN’s responsibility towards the people of Western Sahara, the General Assembly’s decision welcomed the efforts made by UN Secretary General of his special envoy to reach a political solution guaranteeing the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination through the resumption of the negotiation process between the two parties (Morocco and the Polisario Front) in “good faith and without pre-conditions).
It urged the two parties to cooperate with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and to honor their commitments in accordance with the international humanitarian law. (SPS)
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