NEW YORK (United Nations) – APS.dz.- The United Nations General Assembly (GA) adopted, during its 77th session, resolution 77/133 reaffirming the legal framework of the question of Western Sahara, qualifying it as a question of decolonisation.
The General Assembly took note of the report of the UN Secretary-General (SG) (4 October), in which Antonio Guterres affirmed, among other things, that the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly, responsible for special political questions and decolonisation, and the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, are dealing with the Saharawi question as a non-self-governing territory and as a question of decolonisation.
The UN General Assembly also recalled all resolutions on Western Sahara, including Security Council resolution 690 (1991) of 29 April 1991, by which and under whose authority the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was established.
The General Assembly reaffirmed in its resolution the irrevocable right of all peoples to self-determination and independence, in accordance with the principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations and in Resolution 1514 (D-15) of 14 December 1960 on the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
Recalling the responsibility of the UN towards the Saharawi people, the GA requested the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples to continue the examination of the situation in Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing Territory to be decolonised and to report thereon to the GA at its 78th session.
It also requested the Secretary-General to submit a report on the implementation of this resolution to the next session of the General Assembly.
Contacted by APS, the Polisario Front representative at the UN, Sidi Mohamed Amar, said on Thursday that the adoption of this resolution by the UN General Assembly was “a new achievement for the Saharawi people because it reconfirms the legal framework of the Saharawi cause, as well as a powerful setback for the Moroccan occupation state which tried to change this framework and tarnish the image of the struggle of the Saharawi people”.
According to the Saharawi official, the resolution confirms the responsibility of the UN towards the Saharawi people who, as a colonised people, retain their inalienable right to self-determination and independence, in accordance with the principles and objectives of the United Nations, in addition to the resolutions of the GA, including resolution 1514 on the declaration of independence of colonised countries and peoples.
“The most important point of the resolution is the confirmation by the General Assembly of the inalienable right of all peoples to self-determination and independence, in accordance with the principles set out in the UN Charter and GA resolution 1514, which celebrated its 62nd anniversary on Wednesday.
It is important to recall that the only item on the GA’s agenda on which it calls on the UN SG to present a report is Western Sahara”, he stressed.