Geneva (Human Rights Council) 6 September 2026 (SPS)– Ambassador Ubbi Bouchraia Bachir, Special Adviser to the President of the Sahrawi Republic and Head of the Working Group on Natural Resources and Related Legal Matters, stressed that the development of renewable energy projects in the occupied Sahrawi territories cannot bypass the legal and political status of the territory, emphasizing that the Sahrawi people “are not opposed to renewable energy,” but reject its use “to perpetuate occupation, dispossession and the denial of our right to self-determination.”
In his closing intervention during a Side-Event on climate justice and human rights in the context of foreign occupation, held Tuesday at the headquarters of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Ambassador Ubbi Bachir stated that “a wind turbine does not make an occupation sustainable, and a solar panel does not make the exploitation of a Non-Self-Governing Territory legitimate,” adding that no project can be described as a “just transition” when justice is denied to the people whose land and resources are being used.
He pointed out that Western Sahara remains on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, that its decolonization process remains incomplete, that its final status has yet to be determined, and that the Sahrawi people have not exercised their inalienable right to self-determination. He stressed that this reality “must be the starting point for every discussion concerning the territory’s land, natural resources, infrastructure and economic development.”
In this context, the Sahrawi official referred to the 1975 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, explaining that it did not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, but rather found no territorial-sovereignty relationship that could affect the application of the principle of self-determination through the free and genuine expression of the will of the people of the territory.
He also referred to the UN Charter, particularly Article 73, General Assembly resolution 1514 on the right of colonial peoples to self-determination and independence, and resolution 1803, which affirms the permanent sovereignty of peoples and nations over their natural wealth and resources. He stressed that these principles “do not disappear when the resource in question is wind or sunlight.”
The Sahrawi diplomat also addressed Morocco’s decades-long exploitation of Western Sahara’s resources, including phosphates, fisheries and land, as well as the increasingly intensive development of wind and solar resources. He stressed that the transition from phosphate extraction to electricity generation from renewable sources does not change the fundamental legal question of who has the right to decide what happens to the territory’s resources.
He rejected the idea that such decisions could be made unilaterally by the Moroccan authorities, through foreign companies operating under contracts concluded with Morocco, according to the commercial interests of investors, or ignored by the international community simply because the resource is labelled “green.”
He also referred to the 2002 opinion of the UN Legal Counsel, which addressed contracts with foreign companies for the exploration of natural resources in Western Sahara, noting that it concluded that further exploration and exploitation would be contrary to international law if undertaken in disregard of the interests and wishes of the people of Western Sahara. “The principle is therefore clear,” he said, the economic development of the territory cannot be separated from the Sahrawi people’s right to determine their own future.
Regarding the European Union, Ambassador Ubbi Bachir highlighted what he described as a clear reinforcement of this principle by the Court of Justice of the European Union, referring to its 2016 judgment in Council v. Front Polisario and subsequent rulings rejecting the automatic extension of EU-Morocco agreements to the territory and its adjacent waters.
He also referred to the Grand Chamber’s judgment of 4 October 2024, explaining that the Court held that the consent of the people of Western Sahara is a condition for the validity of EU decisions approving agreements intended to apply to the territory. The Court also rejected replacing the “people of Western Sahara” with the term “population” currently residing in the territory through a mere consultation process. He stressed that “consultation is not consent, administration is not sovereignty, and economic benefit claimed by the occupying power is not consent by the people.”
The Sahrawi official rejected treating renewable energy projects as an exception to these principles, questioning why the requirement of consent should disappear merely because a project generates electricity from wind or sunlight, and whether climate objectives should be used to circumvent the principles of decolonization.
In this regard, he said Morocco’s strategy is increasingly aimed at presenting occupied Western Sahara as a laboratory for green energy and sustainable development, whereas, from the Sahrawi perspective, what is being developed goes beyond renewable energy infrastructure to constitute an “economic architecture” designed to consolidate Moroccan control over the territory and make that control appear irreversible.
He stressed that wind farms, solar power plants and electricity transmission lines linking the territory to Morocco’s energy system, together with foreign corporate investment, financing from international institutions, and the purchase of or facilitation of energy by European and other international actors, are gradually generating an accumulation of economic interests around the occupation. This, he said, is why there is concern that green infrastructure could become a tool for entrenching the occupation.
Addressing climate justice, Ambassador Ubbi Bachir stressed that tackling the climate crisis and the energy transition cannot be separated from human rights, international humanitarian law, decolonization, or peoples’ right to control their natural wealth.
He added that a transition that reduces carbon emissions while simultaneously deepening the dispossession of a people “is not a just transition, but simply a low-carbon transition.” Climate justice, he stressed, also raises questions about who decides, who benefits, who bears the costs and whose rights are respected.
He also pointed to the continuing restrictions on fundamental freedoms faced by Sahrawi activists in the occupied territories, as well as the problems surrounding independent access to and scrutiny of the human rights situation. He questioned how the international community can credibly speak of “meaningful participation” when the people whose political future is at stake are denied the conditions necessary for genuine political participation, and how foreign companies and financial institutions can claim social legitimacy and sustainability for their projects without the free consent of the Sahrawi people and without taking into account the political and legal context in which they operate.
Ubbi Bachir addressed a direct message to international companies and investors, calling on them not to become instruments of occupation and not to assume that a contract signed with Morocco provides them with legitimate title to operate in Western Sahara. He urged them not to confuse approval by the Moroccan authorities with the consent of the Sahrawi people, nor “consultation with the population or Moroccan settlers” residing in the territory with the “consent” that must come from “the Sahrawi people”, who alone hold the right to self-determination.
He further stressed that the responsibility of international actors does not disappear simply because an investment is described as green. On the contrary, he argued that projects presented as greener should be subject to higher standards of justice and accountability.
He reiterated that the Sahrawi people should not have to choose between their national rights and global climate objectives, reaffirming the Frente Polisario’s support for renewable energy, emissions reductions and sustainable development, while stressing that these objectives must be pursued “with us, not over us; with our consent, not without it; and for our benefit, not as a mechanism for consolidating foreign control over our homeland.”
He said that a legitimate path toward renewable energy development in Western Sahara begins with respect for the rights of the Sahrawi people and the territory’s status as a Non-Self-Governing Territory. It requires genuine consent, meaningful participation and transparency concerning ownership, financing and beneficiaries, as well as ensuring that economic development is not used to prejudge the territory’s final status or undermine the UN-led process of self-determination.
In concluding his intervention, Ambassador Ubbi Bachir stressed that the issue is not simply about wind farms or solar panels, but about whether international law still means what it says, whether the right to self-determination has real consequences, and whether the international community will allow economic interests to precede the resolution of a decolonization question.
He called on States, international organizations, financial institutions and private companies to respect the distinct international status of Western Sahara and the inalienable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination; refrain from supporting economic activities undertaken without their consent; conduct rigorous human rights and international law due diligence before engaging in projects in the territory; and ensure that the green transition does not become a mechanism for entrenching the occupation.
The Sahrawi official concluded by stressing that the world cannot simultaneously proclaim the right of peoples to determine their future and then allow foreign economic interests to determine that future on their behalf, warning against conflating climate justice with colonial fait accompli.
He said that the Sahrawi people “are not against green energy, but against greenwashing occupation,” and are not against investment, but against investment that contributes to depriving a people of the economic foundations needed to exercise its right to self-determination. He reaffirmed that “the right to self-determination is not negotiable,” and that “no amount of green infrastructure can substitute for freedom, no amount of foreign investment can substitute for consent, and no climate agenda should ever be used to bury the unfinished process of decolonization.”
It should be recalled that this Side-Event was attended by a number of experts and political and human rights figures. Ambassador Geraldo Gonçalves Miguel Saranga, Permanent Representative of Mozambique and current Chair of the Geneva Group for Western Sahara, delivered the opening remarks, while Ambassador Ubbi Bouchraia Bachir, Special Adviser to the President of the Sahrawi Republic and Head of the Working Group on Natural Resources and Related Legal Matters, delivered the closing remarks.
The participants also heard interventions from Miguel Urbán Crespo, a former Spanish Member of the European Parliament (2015–2024) and political activist known for his engagement with human rights, international justice and the Western Sahara issue; British Dr. Nick Brooks, a specialist in human-environment interactions and climate change adaptation; and Eric Hagen, a Norwegian board member of the Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW), who has followed the involvement of foreign companies in the exploitation of Western Sahara’s resources since 2002 and also serves as Director of the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara.
Dr. Andrea Maria Pelliconi, Lecturer in Human Rights Law at the University of Southampton and a researcher on demographic engineering, forced displacement, settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide in international law, also took part in the seminar. The event was moderated by South African environmental and human rights activist Catherine Constantinides. (SPS)
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