José Geraldo de Sousa Junior (*) – Jornal Brasil Popular/DF
https://porunsaharalibre.org/en/2024/12/10/western-sahara-and-the-self-determination-of-the-sahrawi-people/
On November 13, four years have passed since the military action of the political organization Polisario Front, which defends the self-determination of the people of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), took up arms again against the Moroccan army. The armed action was justified by the Sahrawi resistance group, which accuses Morocco of breaking a ceasefire agreement that had been in force for almost 30 years.
In a way, it was an action that helped to bring out of the almost obsequious silence a conflict that is all the more hidden because it represents a strong challenge to the permanence in international relations of the colonial model that still characterizes the strategy of the great economic-military powers to establish the terms of ratification of their global hegemonic interests.
Brazil is one of the only countries in Latin America that does not recognize the sovereignty of Western Sahara, which is at odds with Brazilian diplomatic tradition. In fact, Brazil is one of the three countries in South America that do not recognize the sovereignty of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, along with Argentina and Chile. For this reason, the Itamaraty does not maintain diplomatic relations with Western Sahara, but recognizes the Polisario Front as the sole and legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people.
Marked by colonization, the territory of Western Sahara was dominated by Spain from 1884 onwards. And the current reality of its political struggle for self-determination is the result of clumsy management, as is common in decolonization processes, led by the colonizer.
Sahrawi resistance was established throughout the first half of the 20th century, until the independence processes of countries in North Africa, when the expectation of self-determination of the Sahrawi people was rekindled.
Western Sahara ceased to be considered a colony in 1950, when Spain transformed the territory into the 53rd Spanish province. And in 1975, in the midst of the political crisis in Spain, following the death of dictator Francisco Franco, the European country signed the independence agreement and divided the administration of Western Sahara between Mauritania and Morocco, established in the “Madrid Accords”, in relation to which the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in a ruling, established that there was no legal basis for the Spanish decision.
Spain withdrew from the territory in 1976, starting a conflict between the Sahrawi resistance against Morocco and Mauritania. At that time, the Polisario Front founded the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in the city of Bir Lehlou.
Since then, the incidents of this liberation process, sometimes in the field of negotiations, sometimes in the bloody armed field, have left a trail of violence, including a high level of suffering. Today, 165,000 Sahrawi refugees from the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) live in the camps of Algeria alone.
And, today, worsening the complexity of interests that drive the still colonial chess game, in its neocolonial intensity, the voracity over the territory of Western Sahara, which holds the largest phosphate deposits in the world, reserves of copper, uranium and iron, as well as a coast rich in seafood, is becoming even more aggressive.
In early October, the Sahrawi people’s fight for self-determination achieved victory after the European Court of Justice annulled two trade agreements signed in 2019 with the Kingdom of Morocco in the areas of agriculture and fishing. In its decision, the Court established that the European Commission violated the rights of the people of Western Sahara by failing to consult them on trade agreements with Morocco, a country that unilaterally assumes ownership of a territory and the sovereignty of a people, extending this situation with its actions and the alliances that support them, while the international process of recognition of the self-determination of the Sahrawi people is not completed. At an International Meeting of Jurists on Western Sahara, held in the wilaya of Auserd, in the Sahrawi refugee camps, on December 5 and 6, 2024, some understandings were reached. The most important perhaps is that which considers, in accordance with the judgments of the European Court of Justice (judgments dated October 4, 2024), “the nullity of the European Union-Marks Agreements on the Commercial and Fisheries Association”, on the grounds of high relevance with repercussions for similar situations, regarding “the need for said Agreements, insofar as they affect the territory of Western Sahara, must have the consent of the Sahrawi People, holders of the right to self-determination, which cannot be replaced by the consent of the population settled in Western Sahara after the occupation”, illegal under international law.
The jurists also expressed their views on other very serious aspects, which were critically assessed during their meeting, concluding by considering that “In a world order based on rules, the logic of force cannot be an option. The only option is to defend the principles of International Law and bring to a successful conclusion the decolonization of Western Sahara through the free, authentic and democratic expression of the sovereign will of the Sahrawi People in the exercise of their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. This is the only way that can lead to a fair and lasting solution that restores peace, security and stability in North Africa, in particular, the sending of an investigation mission, adopted by the Head of State and Government in 2013. -The UN, responsible for implementing the resolutions on the right to self-determination, as well as the complaints about torture, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, economic, social and cultural rights”. In view of the conclusions of the jurists, it must be agreed that the case of Western Sahara is emblematic not only as a question of classic colonialism, but also of coloniality. In this context, there are limits and responsibilities to be established in relation to the conduct of the countries and organizations that have interfered, with the African Union being responsible for implementing its Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in addition to sending investigative missions to determine violations of rights and ensuring that SADR is the sovereign representative of the Sahrawi people, based on African legality, in accordance with its own resolutions and acts; as well as the UN, which must ensure the implementation of resolutions that recognize the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people.
In their summary of their position, the jurists support the conviction that the situation in Western Sahara reflects an unequal struggle where the logic of power and realpolitik prevail, revealing a colonial perspective, “originating from a bad decolonization” that did not follow the precepts on self-determination of peoples established in the 1960s by the United Nations.
Without the fulfillment of these responsibilities by the actors involved, it becomes unlikely to advance towards a fair and lasting solution based on self-determination and the principles of international law, extending the colonial perspective, which did not follow the precepts on self-determination of peoples established in the 1960s by the United Nations, guided by the principles of its Magna Carta expressed in the statement that “every oppressed people has the right to achieve self-determination”.
And much less, to the guidelines of the main statements that are included in the declarations and statements of countries and peoples, worth convening the international assembly, which the then newly formed League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples managed to bring together in Algiers, when it drafted a remarkable document: the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples (1976).
This ‘unofficial’ document appears in the most qualified human rights repertoires and, resulting from the agreement to recognize the subjective rights of individuals, groups and peoples, made aware and affirmed, is part of the dynamics of principle and action of the personalities and leaders who signed it.
I applied this document when I participated (1991) in the Algiers International Colloquium – Meeting of Independent Personalities, on the theme “Crise du Golfe: la Derive du Droit”. This application was appropriate for the debate at that time – the Colloquium was held on the day of the ceasefire of the First Gulf War – and I believe it is still appropriate. Its provisions on the rights to existence, political self-determination, economic standards, culture, the environment and natural resources, and the identity of minorities, organize effective systems of guarantees and sanctions that make them effective and positive in the contradictory context of national and international ethical antagonisms. The preamble of this document designates these contradictions to establish, consequently, the ethical foundations: “We are living in times of great hope, but also of profound concerns; times full of conflicts and contradictions; times in which the liberation struggles have raised the peoples of the world against the national and international structures of imperialism and have succeeded in overthrowing colonial systems; times of struggles and victories in which nations assume, among themselves or within themselves, new days of justice; times in which the resolutions of the United Nations, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, have expressed the search for a new international political and economic order” (SOUSA JUNIOR, José Geraldo de. A Crise do Golfo: a Deriva do Direito in SOUSA JUNIOR, José Geraldo de. Sociologia Jurídica: Condições Sociais e Possibilidades Teóricas. Porto Alegre: Sergio Antonio Fabris Editor, 2002, p. 133-144).
Attempts to reverse this position are therefore very welcome, such as that of federal deputy Erika Kokay (PT), from the Federal District, in a movement to coordinate the creation of the Brazil-Western Sahara Parliamentary Group, with the aim of pressuring the Brazilian government to establish diplomatic relations with the Sahrawi Republic.
There was also the initiative, in May 2024, of the Legislative Chamber of the Federal District to hold a solemn session to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the Polisario Front. On that occasion, representatives of the Association for Solidarity and Self-Determination of Western Sahara (ASAHARA), founded in the Brazilian capital in 2018, and parliamentarians called for the creation of an embassy for the country in Brazil.
The presence of a representative of the Polisario Front in Brasília, at these events and negotiations, has been an indication of the political influence in the federal government for the recognition of the SADR. Currently, 82 countries recognize the independence of Western Sahara.
For representative Ahmed Mulay, “the world is facing a “serious crisis of capitalism,” in which people are fighting for justice and to recover their rights and wealth.” For the representative, the great powers of the West have not respected this, in addition to destroying the land and nature. It is necessary to choose global stability before thinking about winning. The land offers wealth to the entire world, but unfortunately the West does not have this philosophy. It is a new form of slavery, whether you like it or not. And only the union of peoples can reverse this.” (https://operamundi.uol.com.br/especial/ultima-colonia-na-africa-retomada-das-armas-pela-resistencia-saaraui-completa-quatro-anos/).
In continuity with these agendas, it is necessary to continue debating issues that call for positions in favor of the self-determination of the Saharawi people; the permanent sovereignty of peoples over their natural resources; the investigation of war crimes and the application of human rights and international humanitarian law, holding accountable agents, authorities and governments that violate and perpetrate these crimes, and preventing hybrid warfare in the form of lawfare against activists and journalists who denounce these violations.
It is true, says the representative of the Polisario Front in Brazil, Ahmed Mulay, “that only we ourselves have to find a way to achieve our independence.” But – he adds in an interview given to Esquerda Diário (https://esquerdadiario.com.br/Entendemos-que-so-nos-mesmos-temos-que-buscar-a-forma-de-conseguir-nossa-independencia-entrevista) – “in addition, we are trying to convince His Excellency, President Lula, to treat the Sahrawi cause as he has treated the Palestinian cause. He received representation from Palestine, then went a step further and recognized the Republic of Palestine and allowed the existence of a Palestinian embassy in Brazil. He has already recognized the Polisario Front, but we want him to move forward and recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and allow us to open an embassy together with the Palestinian embassy in Brasília. This is our fight and that is why we need you and everyone you know, the media, so that we can mobilize international opinion and achieve this goal.”
(*) José Geraldo de Sousa Junior is a full professor at the School of Law and former rector of the University of Brasília (UnB)
José Geraldo de Sousa Junior has a degree in Legal and Social Sciences from the Associação de Ensino Unificado do Distrito Federal – AEUDF, and a master’s and doctorate in Law from the University of Brasília – UnB. He is also a jurist and researcher on topics related to human rights and citizenship, and is recognized as one of the authors of the Direito Achado na Rua project, a research group with more than 45 researchers involved.
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