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Take actionIt is unseen: a country is carrying out a large-scale oil exploration programme outside of its national borders. When that happened last time, under Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor, the activities were widely condemned and universally acknowledged as illegal.
Yet, this is precisely what Morocco is doing now in Western Sahara. But this time, the entire international community looks away.
Western Sahara is often called the last colony of Africa, and the UN treats it as such; as a Non-Self Governing Territory without an administering power in place. The people of Western Sahara, the Saharawis, have an internationally recognised right to self-determination; the right to decide the future status of the land and its resources.
The Saharawis have time and again spoken out against the oil development in their occupied homeland. Their voices are ignored by Morocco, the international community and the oil companies that choose to side with Morocco, who all seem to put profit over people.
Read up on big oil in Western Sahara, and find out what you can do to help put an end this injustice.
Morocco allocates vast tracts of occupied Western Sahara
Moroccan budget documents released in late October reveal that the kingdom allocated tens of thousands of hectares of land in occupied Western Sahara to investment projects.
Guterres reminds Morocco: Self-determination still stands
In one of his final statements as UN Secretary-General, António Guterres has made an unequivocal point: the end of MINURSO does not extinguish the inalienable right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. It is a reminder that Morocco cannot declare the Western Sahara question closed simply because the UN mission is leaving.
When countries defend self-determination while voting against it
Our analysis of yesterday's UN Security Council vote on Western Sahara reveals a striking gap between what some governments said about the Saharawi people's right to self-determination and the resolution they voted to support.
US and Russia veto competing Western Sahara resolutions, leaving MINURSO’s future uncertain
In an extraordinary confrontation, both permanent members blocked each other’s proposals on Western Sahara. With no resolution adopted, the UN mission faces an imminent expiry of its mandate.