Take Action - MINURSO

TAKE ACTION!

In the run-up to the reports on Western Sahara being discussed by the UN Security Council in April, we ask our partners and supporters to work with us and contact members of the UNSC.

The UN Security Council is reviewing MINURSO, its mission to Western Sahara.

It must do better.

The abject failure of the Security Council to apply the terms of the 1991 Peace Agreement or even to appoint a new and credible special envoy has led to a resumption of war in the Western Sahara. MINURSO has no referendum to organise, no ceasefire to monitor, and its current mandate lacks a human rights function. In the absence of rapid and substantive actions by the Council, MINURSO will be irrelevant to the Saharawi people at a time when repression in the occupied territory is increasing, economic exploitation deepening, and the refugee camps are on a war footing. All this comes amid the Covid crisis.

You Can Take Action!

Please write, e-mail or call members of the UNSC to express your views on the need for international public support for the Saharawi people. Particularly contact your own country, and the Vietnamese ambassador, as Vietnam holds the presidency of the Council in April. Contact details can be found below.

Use your own words in these communications if you can, it will have a greater impact. There is no need to cover every point; between us we will cover them. Please see the attached briefing below from more information. This was prepared by WSCUK which currently leads on Western Sahara Action Forum initiatives.

The key points are that the Security Council should:

Get the political process moving again, by:

• Providing an alternative to war by focussing on achieving self-determination for the Saharawi people, setting a date for a free and fair referendum to be carried out in Western Sahara with an option for independence on the ballot paper

• Appointing a new and credible Personal Envoy of the Secretary General to Western Sahara.

• Sending a fact-finding mission to Western Sahara to investigate human rights abuses, including those of Saharawi prisoners in prisons in Morocco.

• Granting MINURSO the legal mandate to monitor and report on human rights in the territories controlled by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO.

• Demanding an end to the illegal extraction of natural resources from Western Sahara, which disregards the interests and wishes of the indigenous Saharawi.

• Insisting on the withdrawal of Moroccan forces and infrastructure from the buffer zone at Guerguerat, and the demolition of all and any new sections of wall.

• Advocating for the release of Saharawi civilian prisoners in Moroccan prisons, which are notorious for overcrowding and unhygienic conditions.

• Insisting on unfettered access to Western Sahara by the international media and humanitarian NGOs.

Download: UNSC Contact Details

(Amended 06/04/2021 - please use this one:

unsc_contacts_-_march_2021 (1)

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Download PDF • 142KB

Download: UNSC Briefing 2021

unsc_briefing_march_2021

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Download PDF • 98KB

Download the text on this page as a letter to supporters: Action Email

western_sahara_action_email

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Download PDF • 18KB