[West-Sahara] oproep: brief aan Veiligheidsraad

[fwillems op antenna.nl]

Aan het einde van deze maand staat op de agenda van de Veiligheidsraad
de vraag of de MINURSO, de VN missie voor het organiseren van het
referendum in West-Sahara, moet worden voortgezet en zo ja hoe. De VN
missie bestaat al sinds 1991 en heeft nog steeds geen referendum kunnen
organiseren.
De Western Sahara Campaign UK heeft het initiatief genomen tot het
schrijven van een brief aan de Veiligheidsraad en zij vragen
organisaties om de brief mede te tekenen. Zie hieronder.

In de brief wordt gevraagd om na te denken over manier waarop de
natuurlijke rijkdommen van West_Sahara door de VN missie beschermd
kunnen worden, om de VN missie het mandaat te geven op de mensenrechten
te letten, en om een datum vast te stellen voor het referendum.

De Stichting Zelfbeschikking West-Sahara heeft dat gedaan.
Het zou goed zijn als meer Nederlandse organisaties zich bij de oproep
aansluiten.
Verspreid daarom aub deze oproep. De brief wordt 24 april verstuurd.
Als men de oproep wil onderschrijven kan dat worden doorgegeven aan de
WSCUK, via de contactgegevens:


  ---
Western Sahara Campaign UK
+44 1974 282214
coordinator op wsahara.org.uk
www.wsahara.org.uk
  ---




H.E. Mr Christoph Heusgen

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations

871 United Nations Plaza

New York, NY 10017

24 April 2019

 

 

Your Excellency

 

As representatives of human rights organisations, civil society, and
solidarity groups from around the world, we are writing to you to
request that you and all members of the Security Council take the steps
necessary to end the decades-long conflict in Western Sahara.  The
current situation is untenable and continues to allow gross violations
of human rights.
 

The Security Council must make clear that the only solution which is
just, lasting and mutually acceptable, is one that enables the Saharawi
people to freely, fairly and democratically determine their future,
without preconditions imposed by outside forces.


The UN-led process will only deliver the Saharawi people’s right to
self-determination if the Security Council is determined to solve this
crisis once and for all, and finds the political will necessary to lay a
credible path to self-determination.  This right is enshrined in the UN
Charter and is the foundation on which MINURSO’s mission was built.  The
failure of the Security Council to move the political process forward
and pressure Morocco to act in good faith has enabled a political
impasse in Western Sahara that tarnishes the reputation and credibility
of the United Nations and its peacekeeping missions.  We urge all
members of the Council to deliver on this promise.
 

We, the undersigned, call on you to act with due urgency to support the
right of the people of Western Sahara to choose their own political
future.  We urge you to:

 
-          grant MINURSO the legal mandate to monitor and report on
human rights in territories controlled by the Kingdom of Morocco and the
Frente POLISARIO

-          consider how MINURSO could support the upholding of
international law with regard to the illegal exploitation of Western
Sahara’s resources by Morocco.

-          set a date for the long-delayed referendum on
self-determination, which must include the option of independence for
the people of Western Sahara, as required by international law
 

Please circulate this letter to all members of the Security Council.