New York (United Nations) 25/06/2015 (SPS).- The members of the United Nations Committee of 24 (Special Committee on Decolonization) called to speed up the decolonization process in Western Sahara through the holding, without delay, of a referendum on self-determination in order to allow Sahrawi people to freely decide their future.
During a session on Western Sahara held at the UN headquarters from 15 to 25 June, the member states and observers of the UN Committee urged Morocco to fulfil its international commitments by respecting Sahrawi people's unalienable right to self-determination in accordance with Settlement Plan of 1991, unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council.
The representatives of Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Algeria, South Africa and Sierra Leone underlined UN responsibility in the settlement of Western Sahara conflict.
Considering the conflict in Western Sahara is a decolonization issue, the representatives of the eight countries said that it is incumbent upon the UN to ensure the implementation, in coordination with the African, Union, the relevant resolutions of the UN general Assembly and the Security Council reaffirming the unalienable right of Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence.
They also expressed great concern over the human rights violations perpetrated in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and the illegal exploitation of its natural resources.
The participants also stressed the need to take into consideration the proposals of Polisario Front's representative to the UN, Ahmed Boukhari, made during the regional seminar on decolonization in May 2015, calling on the Committee to devote a session to Western Sahara issue and inviting it to visit the occupied territories.SPS
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