Western Sahara Seeks to Expand UN Peacekeeping Mandate
While Morocco, backed by France, continues to fight the Sahrawi people’s struggle for greater self-determination, efforts are growing to monitor human rights in Western Sahara, writes Kaci Racelma.
The Kingdom of Morocco has been under significant pressure to expand the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara (the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, or MINURSO) to include a mechanism for monitoring human rights in Western Sahara. This initiative has dominated regional newspaper headlines, especially in Algeria, which has made it its new motto.
The MINURSO is first and foremost a UN-led peacekeeping operation in the region. It was established April 29, 1991, by UN Security Council resolution No. 690. At the time, the situation was hunky-dory, and things were great for Morocco.
Lately, MINURSO's goal of a referendum to determine the region's future and secure population movements is likely to expand, to include a mechanism for monitoring human rights in Western Sahara. The pertinent question is whether human rights are respected there. This project, which is supported by many countries, will be subject to a vote at the UN Security Council.
A preliminary report was published in September, following an August 2012 visit to the occupied territories in Western Sahara by a delegation from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, headed by its president Kerry Kennedy and comprised of jurists and international human rights experts.
