France block move to include human rights in MINURSO mandate
Although other members of the UN Security Council were open to including human rights in the renewal of the mandate of the UN mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO), France held firm on behalf of its ally Morocco.
A big thank you to everyone who campaigned for human rights monitoring to be included in MINURSO's renewed mandate. Although the outcome is not what we hoped for, some progress has been made.
There were more positive noises coming from some UN Security Council members in favour of human rights monitoring than in previous years. The UK's Ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, said the UK would be happy to see human rights language in the final resolution. Before the negotiations, the First Vice President of Spain, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, confirmed that Spain supports human rights monitoring as part of the mandate of MINURSO. Uganda, Nigeria and Mexico all threatened to abstain.
This led to some small additions being made to the wording of the resolution extending the mandate: it refers to "reaffirming" previous council resolutions and to the "existing" mandate of MINURSO, which underlines MINURSO's original aim of preparing for a referendum; and refers to the role of the UN system, seen by some to infer human rights.
This led to a 15-0 vote in favour of the resolution to extend MINURSO's mandate.
These changes, however, are not nearly enough. Human rights abuses are continuing in Western Sahara unchecked. Click here to read the latest reports from ASVDH.
WESTERN SAHARA CAMPAIGN UK
The Western Sahara Campaign works in solidarity with the Saharawi people to generate political support in order to advance their right to self-determination and to promote their human rights.
Our role is to lobby the UK Government and the EU. You can help us to ensure the UK does not ignore the voice of the Saharawi people.
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