Bir Lehlou (Liberated Territories), 20 August 2025 (SPS) – The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali, has reaffirmed that the UN-AU Settlement Plan is the sole agreed-upon framework for decolonizing Western Sahara.
In a message sent to the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, updating him on the latest developments of the Sahrawi issue, President Ghali recalled the international nature of the Sahrawi issue as a decolonization matter on the agenda of the General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies. He pointed out that "this year marks 50 years since the invasion of Western Sahara by the occupying state of Morocco on 31 October 1975, in blatant violation of the United Nations Charter and the inalienable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence."
Regarding human rights, Mr. Ghali emphasized that "the ongoing illegal Moroccan military occupation of Western Sahara still represents the gravest violation of the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination, which has led to systematic and blatant violations of the political, economic, social, and cultural rights of the Sahrawi people. These violations have been documented and condemned by numerous international and African organizations, as well as various United Nations bodies."
He alerted that Sahrawi political prisoners, foremost among them the Gdeim Izik group, "continue to live in tragic conditions inside the prisons of the occupying Moroccan state, where they are subjected daily to degrading and punitive practices, including deprivation of medical care and treatment, isolation, and a ban on correspondence." He called on the UN Secretary-General to "take all necessary measures to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all Sahrawi political prisoners so they can return to their homeland and be reunited with their families."
He added that the Moroccan occupation authorities "continue to pursue a scorched-earth policy with the declared aim of uprooting Sahrawis from their homes and lands within the framework of a systematic policy of settler colonialism, in addition to a policy of impoverishment, deprivation, exclusion, and racial discrimination against Sahrawis, and the plunder of Sahrawi wealth in collusion with foreign parties, in blatant violation of the right of the Sahrawi people to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources."
In this regard, the Sahrawi President recalled the two rulings issued on October 4, 2024, by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which affirmed the "separate and distinct status" of Western Sahara in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 2625 (XXV), and the illegality of agreements between the European Union and Morocco that include Western Sahara because they were concluded in violation and disregard of the consent of the Sahrawi people and their right to self-determination and permanent sovereignty over their natural resources.
He also pointed out that the Moroccan occupation forces, since their violation of the ceasefire on November 13, 2020, continue to use all types of weapons, including drones, to kill Sahrawi civilians, stressing that "the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian objects constitutes a war crime according to the Statute of the International Criminal Court and a violation of the rules of international humanitarian law."
He added that the Moroccan occupation "continues to impose a military siege and a comprehensive media blackout on the territory, preventing United Nations bodies and its rapporteurs, non-governmental organizations, international media, and observers from entering it, with the aim of covering up its heinous crimes against Sahrawi civilians."
Mr. Ghali demanded that the United Nations assume its moral and legal responsibility towards the Sahrawi people, which necessitates the establishment of an independent and permanent mechanism to protect the fundamental rights of the Sahrawi people and provide field and regular reports on the situation in the territory to relevant UN bodies, and to expand the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include human rights.
He reaffirmed that the joint UN-AU Settlement Plan, accepted by both parties, the Polisario Front and Morocco, in 1988 and unanimously endorsed by the Security Council, is "the only mutually agreed upon agreement, which is practical and reasonable for achieving a peaceful, just, and lasting solution to end colonization in Western Sahara."
In this context, he reiterated the Polisario Front's full readiness to enter into "direct, serious, credible, and good-faith negotiations without preconditions with Morocco, with the aim of reaching a peaceful, just, and lasting solution to end the colonization of Western Sahara in accordance with the decisions of the United Nations and the African Union and the relevant principles of international law."
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