Physical Address
Indirizzo: Via Mario Greco 60, Buttigliera Alta, 10090, Torino, Italy
The Sahrawi President called on the European Union to refrain from signing any agreement affecting the territories, airspace or territorial waters of Western Sahara without the consent of the Sahrawi people, through its only legitimate representative, the Polisario Front.
Brahim Ghali expressed the Sahrawi side’s willingness and openness to dialogue with the European Union and other partners on issues of Western Sahara’s natural resources. On the other hand, the President of the Republic denounced the Madrid tripartite agreement, calling it “a serious historical error, a shameful betrayal of the Sahrawi people and harm to international law.”
“Fifty years after this dark agreement, Spain has not corrected its perfidious and shameful position, while publicly boasting of supporting international legitimacy in Palestine,” lamented the President of the Republic, who spoke on the occasion of November 8, the anniversary of the dismantling of the Gdeim Izik camp and National Day of the Sahrawi Political Prisoner.
The Spanish government has forgotten that its former colony, Western Sahara, is under Moroccan occupation, according to the same international legitimacy, affirmed the President of the Republic, regretting the support of the government of Pedro Sanchez for the expansionist thesis of Morocco and the illegal EU-Morocco agreements to plunder the natural wealth of Western Sahara.
Furthermore, the International Association of Jurists for Western Sahara, through its president Inès Miranda, also president of the General Council of Spanish Lawyers (CGAE), indicated the day before yesterday that Spain, as a former colonial power, bears full responsibility for Western Sahara. This assertion was reported by the official Western Sahara agency Sahara Press Services (SPS), a few days after the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of a resolution on the Sahrawi question.
In a long article published in the Spanish magazine “La María”, Ms. Miranda underlines that the United Nations recognizes the Sahrawi territory as a “non-autonomous territory”, which means that the colonial power, namely Spain, has not completed the decolonization process and has not accompanied the territory on the path to independence.
In this sense, the president of the International Association held her country, Spain, “responsible” for the situation in Western Sahara, in accordance with Articles 74 and 75 of the United Nations Charter. She argued that Spain did not transfer administration to another entity with the approval of the United Nations General Assembly, meaning the responsibility still lies with it.
She added that before its withdrawal in 1975, Spain should have finalized this process with a referendum allowing the Sahrawi people to express their will, in accordance with UN resolutions.
For the Spanish lawyer, “international law does not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over this territory”. According to this jurist, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirmed in 1975 that Western Sahara was not a “land without people”, but rather a “territory inhabited by a sovereign community”, the Sahrawi people, without a link of sovereignty with Morocco.
Consequently, underlines Inès Miranda, the sovereignty of peoples cannot be bargained for. “The current situation in Western Sahara constitutes a flagrant violation of the Treaty of Good Neighborhood between Morocco and the European Union, article 2 of which stipulates that in the event of a violation of human rights, the agreement may be terminated,” she highlighted.
Finally, the International Association of Jurists for Western Sahara urges, once again, Spain to “activate” this clause, because Morocco is waging a war of occupation against Western Sahara, which constitutes a flagrant violation of the said treaty.