Webinar: The Moroccan Claim on Western Sahara – Analysis and Critique with Jacob Mundy

PUSL.- Next Saturday, 19th September, the NGO Solidarity Raising organizes a Webinar on “The Moroccan Claim on Western Sahara – Analysis and Critique” with Dr. Jacob Mundy and followed by questions and discussion. The webinar will take place at 17h00 PM (CEST), to join click here: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/860610709

Since the 1956, the Moroccan government has laid claim to the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. The historical and legal basis of these claims were put before the International Court of Justice in the Summer of 1975. The Court’s opinion, though non-binding, soundly rejected the idea that Morocco (and Mauritania) had sovereignty over Western Sahara before 1885. Though the Court upheld Western Sahara’s right to independence, Morocco nonetheless invaded the territory in 1975 to take by force what was not legally its territory. In the decades that have followed, Morocco has falsely insisted that The Hague not only vindicated its claims, but has also put forward new reasons to suggest that Western Sahara – Africa’s last UN recognized non-self-governing territory – does not in fact have a right to self-determination. This talk will analyze the Moroccan state’s arguments, both old and new, in order to reveal how they have no actual basis in history and international law.

Dr. Jacob Mundy (PhD, University of Exeter 2010) is an Associate Professor in the Peace & Conflict Studies program and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies program at Colgate University.

He is the co-author of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press, 2010) with Stephen Zunes, which will be republished in 2021 in an updated paperback edition. During the 2018-2019 academic year, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Université de Tunis.