• A war erupted between those countries and a Sahrawi nationalist movement, the Polisario Front, which proclaimed itself the rightful leadership of the SADR with a government in exile in Tindouf, Algeria. (wikipedia.org)
  • The only part of the coast in the SADR territory (and therefore outside of the Moroccan Western Sahara Wall) is the extreme south, including the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula. (wikipedia.org)
  • In 1984, the African Union's predecessor, the Organization of African Unity, recognized the SADR as one of its full members, with the same status as Morocco, and Morocco protested by suspending its membership of the OAU. (wikipedia.org)
  • Meanwhile, the African Union has not issued any formal statement about the border separating the sovereign territories of Morocco and the SADR in Western Sahara. (wikipedia.org)
  • The background for this request was that the Minister of Finance had received letters from the Western Sahara Support Committee and the Government of the SADR (Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic), asking him to disinvest from the Fund's investments in the company Kerr-McGee Corporation. (regjeringen.no)
  • Also known as Western Sahara, SADR is a founding member of the African Union (AU) and the continent's last colony, fighting a war for liberation from Morocco. (towardfreedom.org)
  • The Moroccan occupation of most of SADR's territory since 1975 has been receiving increasing Western support, despite a consensus in international law that Morocco has no legitimate territorial claims over SADR, whose right to self-determination is well-recognized. (towardfreedom.org)
  • This was a setback to Morocco, which had declared a diplomatic victory over SADR prematurely, before any official announcement by the Kenyan government. (towardfreedom.org)
  • The UN, the AU, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the International Court of Justice all maintain that Morocco has no legitimate territorial claims over SADR. (towardfreedom.org)
  • The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was proclaimed on 27 February 1976 to fill the legal vacuum in the context of Spain's unfulfilled obligation to lead the territory of Western Sahara to its decolonisation, and the withdrawal of the Spanish administration from the territory. (techsb.ca)
  • To date, large parts of Western Sahara are controlled by the Moroccan Governmentand known as the Southern Provinces, whereas some 20% of the Western Sahara territory remains controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). (techsb.ca)
  • Occupied by Spain until 1975, Western Sahara has been on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1963 after a Moroccan demand. (wikipedia.org)
  • In 1975, Spain relinquished administrative control of the territory to a joint administration by Morocco, which had formally claimed the territory since 1957, and Mauritania. (wikipedia.org)
  • However, Morocco, illegally occupying parts of Western Sahara since 1975, has kept the exports of Western Sahara phosphate rock. (wsrw.org)
  • While the 1975 annexation and the resulting conflict forced tens of thousands of Sahrawi people into refugee camps in the desert, European countries and Morocco have remained fixed on exploiting the occupied territory's resources, such as fertile fishing grounds off the coast. (left.eu)
  • In October 1975, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected claims from Morocco and Mauritania regarding their alleged sovereignty over the territory. (regjeringen.no)
  • Since a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire agreement in 1991, two-thirds of the territory, including most of the Atlantic coastline, has been administered by the Moroccan government, with tacit support from France and the United States. (wikipedia.org)
  • Until 2020[update], no other member state of the United Nations had ever officially recognized Moroccan sovereignty over parts of Western Sahara. (wikipedia.org)
  • In 2020, the United States recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in exchange for Moroccan normalization of relations with Israel. (wikipedia.org)
  • The Moroccan state company OCP has decided to drop defending the detained conflict mineral cargo in South Africa. (wsrw.org)
  • The value equals around 15% of the entire multilateral humanitarian aid donated to the refugees from Western Sahara, which fled following the brutal Moroccan occupation. (wsrw.org)
  • For over 40 years, a Moroccan state-owned company has exported phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara. (wsrw.org)
  • Systematic human rights abuses, police brutality, violations of international law and fundamental rights, the Sahrawi people of Africa's last colony, Western Sahara, have endured decades of repression at the hands of Moroccan occupying forces. (left.eu)
  • What followed was a sham effort at 'consultation' by the Commission, involving a strange assortment of groups such as Morocco's largest mining firm, officials elected illegally under Moroccan occupation, Moroccan state-owned companies and private corporate interests. (left.eu)
  • MEP Patricia Lalonde, was a board member at a secretive Morocco-based foundation, EuroMedA, alongside former Moroccan government ministers and state officials. (left.eu)
  • The company Kerr-McGee Corporation 3 Through its subsidiary Kerr-McGee du Maroc Ltd. entered in 2001 into a contract with the governmental Moroccan oil company ONAREP regarding geological and geophysical studies off shore Western Sahara. (regjeringen.no)
  • Moroccan authorities describe Western Sahara as "Moroccan Saharan Provinces", and claim sovereignty over the area. (regjeringen.no)
  • According to the UN, however, Western Sahara is still a Non-Self-Governing Territory, and, as such, not subject to Moroccan sovereignty. (regjeringen.no)
  • Nevertheless, in late 2020, then-U.S. President Donald Trump had announced his decision to open a consulate in occupied Western Sahara, in effect recognizing it as Moroccan sovereign territory. (towardfreedom.org)
  • Both Morocco and Polisario have sought to boost their claims by accumulating formal recognition, especially from African, Asian, and Latin American states in the developing world. (wikipedia.org)
  • In 2016, the European Court of Justice reaffirmed that Morocco had no sovereignty over Western Sahara, meaning that the EU's agreements with Morocco cannot cover the territory. (left.eu)
  • The export of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara has never been lower than in 2019. (wsrw.org)
  • Similarly, the Court of Justice of the EU on 21 December 2016 judged that trading with the territory would be illegal without such consent. (wsrw.org)
  • In 2016, Morocco earned over 200 million USD from the rock export from the territory. (wsrw.org)
  • In the Agreement, Spain confirmed her intentions of contributing to the decolonisation of Western Sahara, and to transfer the duties as Administrative Power to Morocco and Mauritania. (regjeringen.no)
  • The former Legal Counsel to the UN Security Counsel, Mr. Hans Corell, comments on the EU's fisheries activities in Western Sahara. (wsrw.org)
  • A Japanese-Canadian vessel that transported conflict phosphate from occupied Western Sahara was yesterday received by a floating protest in New Zealand. (wsrw.org)
  • The bay of Mogán at Gran Canary Island will next week be covered in conflict sand from occupied Western Sahara. (wsrw.org)
  • The Western Sahara faces new hostilities, and the conflict is turning to a resource-based one. (techsb.ca)
  • Whilst most conflict over resources in North Africa are emerging over the scarcity of resources such as water , the Western Sahara conflict has the potential to be revived over the presence of valuable resources such as fisheries and phosphate. (techsb.ca)
  • Ravensdown is "risking potentially disruptive direct action by refusing to allow port workers to register their protest at the importing of Blood Phosphate from the Western Sahara", says the New Zealand Rail and Maritime Transport Union. (wsrw.org)
  • The Saharawi people thus won a 5 million USD walk-over victory before the trial over phosphate rock ownership even had begun. (wsrw.org)
  • The vessel contained 55.000 tonnes of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara. (wsrw.org)
  • Since 1 May, only one vessel of phosphate rock has left occupied Western Sahara, the Common Spirit , which arrived New Zealand this week. (wsrw.org)
  • The invasion of Ukraine causes a massive increase in Morocco's profits from its illegal plunder of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara. (wsrw.org)
  • Morocco shipped 1.93 million tonnes of phosphate out of occupied Western Sahara in 2018, worth an estimated $164 million, new report shows. (wsrw.org)
  • Western Sahara is located on the northwest coast in West Africa and on the cusp of North Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean to the northwest, Morocco proper to the north-northeast, Algeria to the east-northeast, and Mauritania to the east and south. (wikipedia.org)
  • A territory lying in North-Western Africa, Western Sahara borders Morocco in the north, Algeria in the north-east, Mauritania in the east and in the south, and its north-western coast borders the Atlantic Ocean. (techsb.ca)
  • It is not immediately clear to Western Sahara Resource Watch what will now happen to the vessel and the cargo next. (wsrw.org)
  • WSRW asks UN Member States to raise the rights of the people of Western Sahara, for whom Spain continues to bear responsibility. (wsrw.org)
  • WSRW has reason to assume that a shipment of fish oil from occupied Western Sahara was discharged this afternoon in the Netherlands. (wsrw.org)
  • the remaining 80% of the territory is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. (wikipedia.org)
  • In 1965, the United Nations General Assembly adopted its first resolution on Western Sahara, asking Spain to decolonize the territory. (wikipedia.org)
  • Mauritania withdrew its claims in 1979, and Morocco eventually secured de facto control of most of the territory, including all major cities and most natural resources. (wikipedia.org)
  • Based on development of international law, Morocco has no legal right to exploit the territory it holds under occupation. (wsrw.org)
  • Western Sahara Resource Watch works to uncover the plunder of the territory and to keep the companies and governments accountable for their support to the occupation. (wsrw.org)
  • Since replacing Spain as coloniser, Morocco has attempted to control a territory about the size of the UK using military force to suppress free speech and pro-independence protests. (left.eu)
  • Western Sahara, a Spanish protectorate since 1884, was, according to the provisions of the UN Charter, established as a Non-Self-Governing Territory in 1963. (regjeringen.no)
  • The agreement did not alter the status of Western Sahara as Non-Self-Governing Territory under the UN. (regjeringen.no)
  • Western Sahara is the last African colonial state yet to achieve its independence. (wikipedia.org)
  • Its aim was to achieve independence for Western Sahara. (regjeringen.no)
  • In a letter from the Ministry of Finance dated 12 December 2004, the Petroleum Fund's Council on Ethics was asked to assess whether the investments by the Fund in the company Kerr-McGee could constitute a violation of the Ethical Guidelines for the Government Petroleum Fund. (regjeringen.no)
  • Subsequently Morocco invaded parts of Western Sahara, which led to strong reactions from the Security Council. (regjeringen.no)
  • The UN has concluded that any exploitation of resources in Western Sahara would be illegal if the Saharawi people do not consent to it. (wsrw.org)
  • EU must stop legitimising oppression of Saharawi people! (left.eu)
  • However, while the Court's judgment meant the European Commission would first need to obtain the consent of the Sahrawi people before finalising agreements with Rabat, the Commission went on to relaunch a new trade deal, the EU-Morocco Association Agreement. (left.eu)
  • But amid all of this - negotiations, votes, rulings, resolutions - the fate of the people of the Western Sahara is at issue. (left.eu)
  • However, Morocco has persistently worked to defer the referendum, which has still not taken place. (left.eu)
  • This communique, which was made public on Monday, September 19, reiterated, "UN Security Council Resolution 690 (1991)… calls for the self-determination of Western Sahara through a free and fair referendum administered by the UN and the AU. (towardfreedom.org)
  • The government took steps to investigate, prosecute, or punish public officials who committed violations, especially corruption. (state.gov)
  • Impunity for police and security officials remained a problem, but the government provided information on actions taken against officials accused of wrongdoing. (state.gov)
  • The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, and independent media outlets regularly criticized and satirized government officials and policies, but the government on some occasions restricted these rights. (state.gov)
  • Morocco has won support for its position from several African governments and from most of the Muslim world and Arab League. (wikipedia.org)
  • The statement further claimed that Morocco and Kenya had signed a joint statement agreeing that "in deference to the principle of territorial integrity and non-interference, the Republic of Kenya [had extended] total support to the serious and credible autonomy plan proposed by the Kingdom of Morocco" as the only possible solution to the Sahara issue. (towardfreedom.org)
  • The regime is set to receive millions of EU funds every year in return for allowing the exploitation of resources that do not belong to it. (left.eu)
  • Many demonstrate in search of social justice, against the assassination of activists, against the plundering of their natural resources by Morocco and the EU. (left.eu)
  • In 1963, following the passing of the information by Spain, on the basis of Article 73 of the Charter of the United Nations, the UN entered Western Sahara in the list of areas which were not governed independently. (techsb.ca)
  • The aquaculture company Gümüşdoğa turns the meal into valuable fisheries products for the European market. (wsrw.org)
  • What is the incentive for Morocco to engage in peace talks when it has Europe's consent to carry on ignoring international law? (left.eu)
  • The president has the constitutional authority to appoint and dismiss cabinet members and the prime minister, who is the head of government. (state.gov)
  • Some media figures alleged the government used its control over most printing houses and large amounts of public sector advertising preferentially, and that the lack of clear regulations over these practices permitted it to exert undue influence on press outlets. (state.gov)
  • A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. (state.gov)
  • Implicitly criticizing the new president's hasty announcement, the communique signed by principal secretary Ambassador Macharia Kamau added, "It should be equally noted that Kenya does not conduct its foreign policy on Twitter or any other social media platforms, rather through official government documents and frameworks. (towardfreedom.org)
  • Morocco was readmitted to the African Union on 30 January 2017 after promising that the conflicting claims would be resolved peacefully and that it would stop building walls to extend its military control. (wikipedia.org)
  • The African Union provides a peacekeeping contingent to the UN mission which is used to control a buffer zone near the de facto border walls built by Morocco within Western Sahara. (wikipedia.org)
  • Asked to explain the sudden change in stance and dissonance within the government, Kenya's Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua told KTN News on Monday, "This was an administration in transition-[having been] only one day in office… We had many visitors, there [were] so many delegations, and communications had to be made. (towardfreedom.org)
  • It surely had no interest in allowing its political arguments be tested by an independent court", stated Davide Contini of Western Sahara Resource Watch. (wsrw.org)
  • The Council on Ethics has decided to make the following recommendation to the Ministry of Finance, which, according to point 4.5 of the Ethical Guidelines, shall be submitted to the company for comments. (regjeringen.no)
  • Despite sporadic clashes with protestors and occasional use of tear gas and rubber bullets, government forces exhibited restraint with only one death reported. (state.gov)
  • In most instances, recognitions are extended or withdrawn due to a change in relations with Morocco. (wikipedia.org)