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Newsletter January 2026
- luetchfordkarl1
- Dec 23, 2025
- 15 min read
The UK Supports Morocco's Autonomy Plan
On 1st June 2025, the UK government issued a joint communiqué that endorsed the Moroccan Autonomy Plan. On a visit to Moroccan capital Rabat, the UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Morocco's autonomy proposal, which would give Morocco ultimate sovereignty, was "the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution of the dispute". The deal would allow "British businesses to score big on football's biggest stage".
Although the Communiqué does not give the UK’s unequivocal support for the autonomy plan, it does suggest that the UK Government has moved from its previous position of neutrality.
British diplomats said the UK had decided to support the plan but only in return for business deals and a new commitment from Morocco to support the principle of self-determination, publish a new version of its autonomy plan and restart negotiations.
In the communiqué Morocco made a commitment to provide more detail on what autonomy means in the context of self-determination for the Saharawis, and the UK and Morocco pledged ‘to uphold the principles of peace, security, tolerance, and human rights’. Over six months later no more details about the plan have been given and human rights abuses continue.
Despite this, on October 31st the UK supported the Security Council resolution to extend the MINURSO peacekeeping mandate in Western Sahara for a year. The resolution calls for discussions based on Morocco’s Autonomy Proposal. Morocco’s proposal assumes Western Sahara is Moroccan sovereign territory.
Resolution UNSC 2797 (2025) was not adopted unanimously, with China, Pakistan and the Russian Federation abstaining and Algeria refusing to participate in protest, and the Polisario Front describing the text as a “dangerous and unprecedented departure” which “undermine[s] the foundations of the UN peace process in Western Sahara”.
Yet again the United Nations has failed to make progress on this issue. Morocco, confident in the tacit support of the UN Security Council now moving beyond support for the status quo and endorsing the Moroccan autonomy plan which would recognize Moroccan sovereignty of Western Sahara continues to be rewarded for its violent occupation and illegal exploitation of the resources of the Western Sahara.
How can the Saharawi have any faith in such an organisation? Saharawi women and men are raped by Moroccan police if they have the temerity to suggest that the UN should honour their right to self-determination. It hardly smacks of tolerance and a model for peace and understanding.
The Security Council fails Western Sahara and International Law
On 31 October 2025, UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted a new resolution, renewing the MINURSO mandate until 31 October 2026, calling on the Saharawis to negotiate a solution that would entail their incorporation into the occupying power, Morocco.
Exactly 50 years to the day after the Moroccan military rolled across the borders into Western Sahara, the UNSC adopted a new resolution that makes it even more impossible to find a solution to the conflict. Two of the UNSC’s members – the US and France – strongly argue in favour of watering down international law and the UN Charter.
What did the Council adopt?
• The resolution reaffirms previous UNSC decisions and the framework of the UN Charter, aiming to find a “mutually acceptable solution” that ensures self-determination for the people of Western Sahara. • The Council calls for engagement without preconditions. The Council does not recognise Moroccan sovereignty over the territory.
And here comes the paradox:
• The text highlights Morocco’s so-called “Autonomy Proposal” as the way forward in negotiations. It does this while at the same time stressing the right to self-determination. This contains a fundamental contradiction: Morocco rejects the possibility that the Sahrawis could reject the autonomy proposal. The Saharawis are given no choice other than incorporation into Morocco, which fundamentally violates self-determination law. The Security Council is asserting that a solution must occur within the framework of incorporation into Morocco. At the same time, Polisario’s proposal for a solution—previously mentioned in resolutions—is now omitted from the text. Polisario has insisted that any solution must be consistent with previous peace agreements and the UN Charter.
It is worth noting the repeated and likely deliberate grammatical error in the resolution text: A negotiated solution should be “taking as basis Morocco’s Autonomy Proposal.” In correct English, it would have to read “the basis” (the solution) or “a basis” (a possible solution). As written, “taking as basis” is poor English. By failing to clarify whether the proposal is the basis or merely a basis, the Council may have found a formulation that member states could agree on. It may also originate from French phrasing, something like prendre comme base.
Russia, China, and Pakistan abstained. Algeria did not participate in the vote. The remaining states, including the UK, voted in favour.
The entrenched positions
The conflict in Western Sahara is between Morocco, which has invaded the territory, and the Saharawi liberation movement Polisario. The relationship between the two is asymmetric: by controlling migration flows to Europe in particular, Morocco has succeeded in cultivating close ties with European states. It enjoys extensive political and economic cooperation with Western democracies. Meanwhile, the other party, Polisario, possesses strong legal arguments. International law, the UN Charter, and international courts favour the Saharawi position, establishing that the Saharawi people themselves must decide the status of their territory. The two parties’ positions are mutually exclusive.
The new resolution appears to conflict with the UN Charter and decolonisation law by prioritising the Moroccan option, while ignoring Polisario’s proposal, which is based on previously agreed frameworks. The contradiction in UNSC resolutions — simultaneously referencing the autonomy proposal as a realistic solution and insisting that self-determination must apply — has existed since 2007. It is not for other states to instruct the Saharawi people what they must choose. The paradox has never been more pronounced than now.
What is the autonomy plan?
It is not clear what the autonomy plan actually entails.
In 2007 Morocco presented its framework autonomy solution — the day after Polisario presented its own proposal. Morocco’s autonomy proposal emerged at a time when it had gained increased influence in the Security Council: France was led by the now corruption-convicted president Nicolas Sarkozy (who was, incidentally, arrested in France after a trip to occupied Western Sahara), and U.S. foreign policy was led by a close friend of the Moroccan royal family: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This French-American alignment has now returned with Trump and Macron in the leading roles. (See Macron’s shocking 2024 speech on Western Sahara.)
In October 2024, the UN Special Envoy for Western Sahara noted that Morocco should "explain and expand" what it means by the autonomy plan. The lack of clarity regarding what the autonomy plan actually entails was also raised in last week’s explanations of vote from several countries, including the United Kingdom. The Security Council’s member states have thus abandoned the UN Charter and ignored the right to self-determination in favour of a solution they themselves do not fully understand.
What now? There are two casualties here.
First, the international legal order.
The Security Council is out of step with the UN Charter, decolonisation law, the International Court of Justice, and regional courts such as the EU Court of Justice and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. It is paradoxical that states like Denmark and the United Kingdom — which defend the right to self-determination in cases like Greenland and the Falkland Islands — are here effectively saying that self-determination can be ignored in favour of an occupying power’s unilateral proposal to expand its borders through force. States that have supported Morocco’s autonomy plan in recent years have always done so hand-in-hand with Moroccan authorities, often in connection with investment, migration, or energy agreements. When these states describe the autonomy plan as “realistic” or “preferred”, or “most feasible,” as the Security Council now writes, it is always without having engaged with the Saharawis. It is considered “realistic” only if one ignores the existence and preferences of the Saharawi people. These same states do not apply the same logic to other occupations.
The second casualty is the people of Western Sahara and the peace process.
If anything, the situation is now more entrenched than it was a month ago.
In negotiations, the Saharawis will naturally be unable to trust promises from the Moroccan government. Morocco’s invasion has caused the Saharawis 50 years of suffering. A significant part of the population has disappeared, and leading activists are serving life sentences. The previously agreed referendum was first sabotaged and later abandoned by Morocco. On top of that, Morocco is not, in reality, a functioning democracy. Can the Saharawis give up their right to independence in exchange for promises from a government that has violated their rights and broken promises for 50 years?
If Polisario negotiates away self-determination, they will lose their legitimacy among the Saharawis. The Saharawis know they have the right to self-determination. A peace solution based on a forced outcome will not be supported by the people themselves, and therefore cannot be sustainable.
Erik Hagen, Director Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara - full article here.
WSC UK Briefing: Human Rights & 50 Years of Occupation
Background
This briefing aims to update supporters on the human rights situation in Western Sahara as we mark the 50th anniversary of Morocco’s illegal occupation. The contents outlined below draw on reports from CODESA (The Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara), Human Rights Watch, Adala UK, and the United Nations.
After 50 years of Morocco’s military occupation of Western Sahara, it is clear that the Moroccan regime continues to blatantly violate international law, and openly defy the International Court of Justice, the UN, the European Court of Justice, and the African Court on Human and People’s Rights —all of whom recognise and reaffirm that the Saharawi people have the inalienable right to self-determination.
Given increasing support amongst UN Security Council members for the Moroccan Autonomy Plan (MAP)—a proposal in which Western Sahara would be granted regional autonomy, but would be subject to Moroccan sovereignty—this represents an alarming shift.
Support for the MAP risks undermining both UN-led efforts to reach a just, lasting, and mutually-acceptable political solution and the principle of self-determination, but it also proposes that Morocco gains sovereignty over the very territory that it has invaded and where it has committed grave and systematic human rights violations. The following human rights violations detailed below also raise questions of complicity for the UK government’s policy shift on June 1, 2025, as it endorsed the MAP as “the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution to the dispute”.
1. Crimes Targeting Civilians
CODESA’s (2024) annual report on the Human Rights situation in Western Sahara outlines crimes targeting civilians perpetrated by Morocco, not only within the occupied territory, but also those committed east of the defensive berm, in the liberated Western Sahara. Sources report serious injuries to and deaths of civilians, targeted by Moroccan drone strikes, detained in local prisons and psychiatric hospitals, and faced with live ammunition fired by the Moroccan occupying Auxiliary Forces.
2. Targeting Human Rights Defenders, Bloggers, Journalists, and Saharawi Activists In his 2025 report on the ‘Situation concerning Western Sahara’, the UN Secretary-General acknowledges that Saharawis in the occupied territory face an ever-shrinking civic space, and punitive restrictions on the right to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.
Moroccan occupying authorities continue to systematically target human rights defenders, activists, journalists, former political prisoners, and civilians working to document and report violations. Through a campaign of violence, harassment, arbitrary searches and detention, confiscations, denial of free movement, alongside privacy invasion through surveillance, phone tapping and defamation, Moroccan authorities continue to repress any attempts of Saharawi advocacy in the occupied territory.
3. Arrests, Political Trials, Arbitrary Detention, and violations under detention
CODESA identifies that 30 Saharawi political prisoners face between 10 years and lifetime sentences, produced through unjust and illegitimate arrest and trial procedures. Imprisoned Saharawi activists also face severe human rights violations perpetrated by the Moroccan General Delegation for Prison Administration. Families of political prisoners report denial of medical treatment, medical neglect, confiscations, discriminatory treatment and racial discrimination. This drove 12 Saharawi political prisoners to begin hunger strikes in 2024.
4. Targeting of Saharawi Civilians through Forced Displacement, Suppression of Freedom of Expression Saharawi activists are targeted by Moroccan Occupation Authorities for demanding basic economic and social rights. Attempts to realise the benefit of Western Sahara’s natural resources are denied, driving high unemployment that motivates irregular migration. Protests demanding basic rights to employment and sovereignty over resources in late 2024 were met with violent suppression.
Economic oppression is also coupled with Moroccan confiscation of Saharawi assets and land, including reported clearances to make way for transfer to international investment companies.
5. Continued Plunder of Natural Resources, and denial of sovereignty over resources Western Sahara Resource Watch, an NGO monitoring foreign partnerships with Morocco in the occupied territory, has produced several reports detailing the expropriation of natural resources by the Moroccan Authorities. Through partnerships on agricultural exports, fisheries, phosphate mining and exports, renewable energy projects, and green hydrogen, Morocco continues this denial of the Saharawi’s right to their resources, without obtaining the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of the Saharawi people.
Implications
With Morocco denying The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) access to the territory since 2015 the UN remains unable to monitor and observe the human rights situation.
Ollie Mills - Campaigns Officer, read the full article with references here.
The Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara (CODESA)
On the Occasion of 50 Years of the Continued Moroccan Occupation of Western Sahara CODESA published its report: 31 October 1975 – 31 October 2025 Western Sahara: The Final Test of the Credibility of the United Nations System The human rights report documents part of the crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and grave human rights violations committed against Sahrawi civilians in Western Sahara by the Moroccan occupation force over 50 years of its military presence in the territory, which has been listed since 1963 under international law and before the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly as a case of decolonization.
To read this and other report see here.
Labelling
On 26 November EU lawmakers had a golden opportunity to stand up for European consumers. Backed by a solid majority, the Parliament came close to overturning the Commission.
In a strong show of disapproval, the European Parliament rejected the European Commission’s plan to rebrand produce from occupied Western Sahara as originating from Moroccan “regions”. A large majority voted against the proposal - but by the narrowest possible margin, the effort fell short of formally blocking it. The Commission is controversially trying to circumvent earlier rulings by the EU Court of Justice (CJEU)
The vote concerned whether Parliament would object to the Commission’s proposed amendment to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429 on origin labelling for fruit and vegetables from Western Sahara. See WSRW's article here.
In the UK
On 3 July ’25 Mr Hamish Falconer, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Middle East and North Africa, stated in answer to a Parliamentary Question:
The Government is committed to ensuring that UK consumers are not misled about the origin of the food they purchase. In accordance with retained EU Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, food labelling must not be misleading, including in relation to the origin or provenance of food. The UK is responsible for enforcing this regulation within the UK.
But in an e-mail on 27/08/2025 to WSC from Tescos:
‘On behalf of the Chief Executive’s Office’ “I can confirm that we continue to import from Dhakla and label as produce of Morocco.”
The government website - Overseas Business Risk:
Morocco - states Western Sahara: HMG does not provide legal advice to private companies and individuals in relation to their commercial activities. It is therefore for companies to take their own decisions on whether to do business in Western Sahara, as elsewhere. Western Sahara is a UN Non-Self-Governing Territory with no defined Administering Power. . . . The conduct of economic activities by Morocco in Western Sahara is not illegal, but as de facto administering power, in order to comply with international law, Morocco must ensure that economic activities under its administration are conducted to the benefit and in the interests of the people of Western Sahara. Such economic activities include the exploitation of natural resources.
The term de facto administering power has no legal meaning. Morocco is an occupying power. Under international law any exploitation of the resources of a non-self-governing territory can only legally take place with the consent of the indigenous people of that territory and for their benefit. In the case of Western Sahara that means obtaining the agreement of Polisario, the UN recognized representatives of the people of Western Sahara, not including settlers, and directing any benefits to those people which should include those living in the refugee camps.
Marking 50 years of invasion and occupation in the UK
Over the last two months, WSC UK has marked 50 years since Morocco’s invasion and occupation of Western Sahara with several events, looking to use this anniversary to grow awareness and support in the UK for the Saharawi people.
On October 20th, an exhibition, “Sand and Vision: 50 years of exile and occupation”, created in collaboration with Olive Branch Arts UK, was introduced in an opening ceremony held in the Upper Waiting Hall (UWH) of the Palace of Westminster. Hosted by Alex Sobel MP, who spoke along with Sidi Breika, outgoing Polisario Front Representative to the UK; Becky Finlay Hall, Olive Branch Arts UK’s creative director, and John Gurr, WSC coordinator. The exhibition, which showcased photographs taken by Saharawi refugees living in the Tindouf camps, brought Saharawi lived experiences into the centre of British politics, as it stood in the UWH.
On November 8th, demonstrators rallied outside of the Moroccan Embassy in London to hold a peaceful protest in solidarity with the Saharawi people. WSC members joined the wider group, carrying flags, chanting slogans for liberation, and calling for the Saharawi right to self-determination to be respected. The demonstration rejected Morocco’s autonomy plan, instead denouncing its ongoing occupation as a violation of international law.
On November 11th, a Westminster reception, co-hosted by Ben Lake MP and Andy Slaughter MP in the Jubilee Room, showed solidarity with the Saharawi people, bringing together MPs, Peers, civil society activists, members of the UK Saharawi diaspora, and a visiting Polisario Front delegation. The audience heard from Ben Lake MP, as well as Omar Mansour, Polisario Representative for Europe and European Institutions; Sidi Breika, outgoing Polisario Representative to the UK, and Hamdi Yousef, Deputy Polisario Representative in the UK, and there were discussions on the latest developments for the Saharawi struggle, including the recent UN Security Council negotiations on October 30th for the MINURSO mandate renewal. Participants again reaffirmed their support for the Saharawi right to self-determination, and the promotion and protection of Saharawi human rights.
November 12th saw two events. A roundtable discussion, hosted by UNISON, brought together representatives from British Trade Unions, the visiting Polisario Front delegation, and Nafei Ahmed Mohamed, Secretary-general of the General Union of Workers of Saguia El Hamra and Rio de Oro (UGTSARIO), who joined via video conference to discuss the struggle facing Saharawi workers, and the ongoing issue of natural resource expropriation by Morocco and foreign companies. The implications of the recent MINURSO negotiations were also discussed, paving the way for further engagement with British unions.
WSC Committee members attended a reception in the Algerian embassy, held in solidarity with the Saharawi struggle. The visiting Polisario delegation were joined by civil society activists, and Ambassadors.
Mark Luetchford, the Chair of the Western Sahara Campaign, was also invited to speak at a meeting organised in parliament by Liberation on December 11th to mark the UN International Human Rights Day. He took the opportunity to remind the meeting, chaired by Brian Leishman MP, of the need for the UN to honour it's own Charter and make sure that the Saharawi people are able to express their inalienable right to self-determination.
We welcome the public commitment to the Saharawi right to self-determination shown in these events, and looking to the future, WSC will continue to build on this momentum to act in solidarity with the Saharawi people.
EUCOCO 49 — European Coordinating Conference of Support to the Saharawi People
On November 28th and 29th, the 49th conference of EUCOCO took place in Paris, France. The conference was held in the French Assemblée Nationale, and the Bourse du Travail, venues symbolic for the increased effort to lobby the French government to engage with the Saharawi solidarity movement, and recognise the inalienable right of the Saharawi people to self-determination.
Oliver Mills, WSC Campaign Officer, joined over 280 attendees from various solidarity movements, MEPs, national parliamentarians, foreign representatives and Polisario leadership, to engage in discussion on different elements of the Saharawi struggle.
Over the course of the conference, panelists covered the ongoing plunder of Western Sahara’s resources, the recent attempt from the European Commission to bypass the 2024 Court of Justice of the European Union that blocked Western Sahara from being included in the EU-Morocco Association Agreement; the role of the UN, France, and Spain in respecting the rights of the Saharawi people; the responsibility of the international community to uphold Saharawi rights; progress from the EUCOCO working groups on politics and communications, natural resources and human rights, and state-building; citizen mobilisation across Europe; prospects for solidarity across Europe and around the world; and the illegality of Morocco’s occupation.
The conference concluded with a demonstration at Place de Republique.
Ollie Mills, Campaign Officer
Western Sahara – 50 years of exile and oppression
This small book charts the history of the conflict and the manner in which Morocco has defied the UN and blocked all moves which might lead to a just settlement. It also examines the international community’s failure to uphold the rules it has created for itself and, indeed, the willingness of some to put their own economic interests before the democratic and humanitarian principles they claim to value. The book, however, also tells the story of people who have steadfastly refused to accept the authority of an illegal occupier and who continue to demand the right to self-determination.
This book has been produced by the Western Sahara Campaign (WSC) which has for 40 years been supporting the struggles of the Saharawi and pressing for political action, particularly by the UK government, to bring about a just resolution of the conflict. Morocco is unlikely to change unless compelled to do so by the international community, but our politicians are unlikely to give the issue the attention it needs if they do not feel the pressure of concerned constituents. We hope that this book will help build that pressure by publicising the plight of the Saharawi and pushing Western Sahara higher up on the political agenda. For 50 years, the Saharawi have been waiting for justice and conditions in which they enjoy peace and the opportunities to fulfil their aspirations – our hope is that their wait will soon be over.
If you would like a copy of ‘Western Sahara – 50 years of exile and occupation’, please contact us at coordinator@wsahara.org.uk and we’ll be delighted to send you one for a donation to cover p&p.
You can also see a pdf version here.
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