New York, 16 April 2022 (SPS) - The New York Support Group for the Independence of Western Sahara called on the UN Security Council to find a way to enable the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to accomplish its main mission consisting in the organization of a referendum on self-determination in Africa’s last colony.
In a letter to the members of the UN Security Council, the 308 organizations, members of the New York Support Group for the Independence of Western Sahara “call on the members of the Security Council to find a way to enable to the MINURSO to accomplish its mission, which is the organization of a referendum on a free and fair basis, in order to enable the Sahrawi people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.”
In their letter written as the reassessment of the MINURSO approaches, scheduled for 20 April 2022, the signatories called also the Security Council to provide the Personal Envoy of UN Secretary General for Western Sahara Steffan de Mistura with the means to pave the way for the MINURSO to accomplish its main mission.”
They also called the Council to “act in accordance with the objectives and principles of the United Nations (article 24-2 of the UN Charter), to consider including chapters on the human rights and the rule of law in the MINURSO mandate and transferring the issue of Western Sahara from chapter VI to chapter VII of the Charter.”
In this regard, the New York Group underlined that the UN Charter is based on the sovereign equality of all its members. It calls to respect the principle of equal rights and the self-determination of peoples.
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