The European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Global Human Rights sent a formal and detailed appeal to members of the United Nations Security Council to abide by international law and impose respect for the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination in the Council’s decision expected at the end of the month.
The letter presented a legal and institutional appeal expressing deep concern about some provisions of the American draft for the Security Council resolution proposed on October 20, 2026 related to Western Sahara, and the serious negative repercussions it may have on the peace process led by the United Nations and the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.
This step and the objections expressed by the association come based on the findings and documentation of its fact-finding report issued in July 2026, entitled “Fifty Years Under Occupation: Human Rights Violations, the Settler-colonial Transformation, and the Absence of International Monitoring in Western Sahara.”
Through this letter, the organization seeks to call on members of the Security Council to reconsider the current draft resolution, and to ensure that the applicable international legal frameworks and terms of reference for the path of decolonization in the region are not circumvented.
The Assembly stressed the need for the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination to remain the governing basis of the political process, warning against making the proposal for autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty the exclusive and prior outcome of the negotiations, because it presupposes sovereignty that is not agreed upon internationally and conflicts with the territory’s status as a non-self-governing region.
The organization also explicitly called for preserving the name of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and its original mandate associated with organizing the referendum, based on Security Council Resolution No. 690 of 1991 and the UN-African settlement plan accepted by both parties.
The organization warned that removing the reference to the referendum and linking the result to the autonomy proposal threatens to undermine the foundations of the peace process and the parties’ confidence in the neutrality of the United Nations.
In the same context, the letter stressed the necessity of respecting the legal status of the Polisario Front as the sole legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people and a major party in the negotiated settlement process, stressing that any consultations with civil society must be complementary and not an alternative to direct negotiations with the Front, in order to avoid fragmenting the negotiation process or circumventing the political will of the Sahrawi people.
The organization called for the necessity of including an independent, permanent and effective mechanism for monitoring and reporting on human rights within the international presence in Western Sahara to address the existing human rights gap. It urged the member states of the Security Council not to adopt the draft resolution in its current American form and to introduce fundamental amendments that preserve the credibility of the United Nations and ensure full respect for international legitimacy and the inalienable rights of the Sahrawi people.
The letter explicitly referred to Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter and the principle of prohibiting the seizure of territory by threat or use of force, warning that any wording in the draft resolution that might be understood as legitimizing sovereignty acquired by force without the free consent of the Sahrawi people would conflict with the principle of territorial integrity and weaken the credibility of the United Nations in addressing other international conflicts.
The organization also warned that any potential popular vote on self-government arrangements must not be affected by demographic changes or the inclusion of settler voters in a way that displaces the choice of the indigenous Sahrawi people, which requires careful agreement and independent oversight guarantees that guarantee the correct expression of the popular will.
In a context related to the human rights situation, the 2026 fact-finding report reviewed serious and repeated violations that included arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, and unfair trials, as well as restrictions imposed on freedom of expression and association, intimidation of human rights defenders and journalists, in addition to the presence of obstacles to independent legal representation.
To address the human rights gap resulting from the lack of oversight, the association called for enabling the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct regular monitoring missions, while obliging the Secretary-General to submit systematic and regular reports to the Security Council.
At the conclusion of its appeal, the organization warned that taking decisions that are interpreted as aborting the process of decolonization or legitimizing regional acquisition by force would seriously harm the international community’s confidence in the principled and neutral role of the Security Council towards settling regional disputes in general.
