New York (United States), August 21, 2025 (SPS) - The American Global Monitoring Center is organizing an international symposium in New York City on Friday titled "Morocco's Occupation of Western Sahara as a Threat to Regional and International Peace and Security," with the participation of experts, researchers, and representatives of diplomatic missions accredited to the United Nations.
The international symposium, held in-person and also via Zoom technology, will feature prominent researchers and experts such as American academic Jacob Mundy, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at New York's Colgate University, who focuses on conflicts in North Africa and the Sahel region; lawyer and international law expert Katlyn Thomas, former Director of Legal Affairs for the UN Referendum Mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO); and Jeffrey Smith, Professor of Law at Canada's University of Victoria and former UN Legal Advisor in East Timor. Additionally, the representative of the Polisario Front to the UN and coordinator with MINURSO, Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar, will participate. They will discuss the dangers of the continued Moroccan occupation in all its dimensions.
Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar stated in a comment to the Algerian Press Service (APS) that this international symposium serves to highlight the dangers of the continued conflict in Western Sahara without enabling the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination.
In this regard, he said: "On the 31st of next October, it will have been 50 years since the start of the expansionist Moroccan regime's invasion and military occupation of Western Sahara, in blatant violation of the United Nations Charter and its resolutions, which obligate states to refrain from any forcible action that deprives peoples of their right to self-determination, freedom, and independence."
Since that date, he added, "the occupying Moroccan state has waged a war of comprehensive extermination against the Sahrawis and implemented a scorched-earth policy by all means, aiming for the complete elimination of the Sahrawi people, the occupation of their land, the confiscation of their natural resources, and the undermining of their right to self-determination, independence, and sovereignty over their land."
The Sahrawi diplomat affirmed that this international symposium is "an important event not only from the academic perspective, but also because it reflects the growing awareness that the continuation of the Moroccan military occupation of Western Sahara represents the real danger to peace and security in our region, with implications for international peace and security."
Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar pointed out that the past five decades have clearly demonstrated that the expansionist Moroccan regime "is the real danger to regional peace and security, not only through its military occupation of Western Sahara, but also through its adoption of an aggressive policy based on constantly threatening the security and stability of its neighbors, encouraging and supporting terrorist groups and transnational organized crime groups, flooding the region with all kinds of drugs, and entering into dangerous alliances to fuel tension and instability in the region."
It is worth noting that the American Global Monitoring Center is an organization dedicated to promoting peace and protecting human rights. It stands with peoples resisting occupation and supports their right to determine their own future.
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