A United Nations Security Council resolution on the dispute around Morocco's claims to Western Sahara does not ensure that a new framework to end the long-standing impasse on the issue upholds the right to self-determination for the territory's peoples and is consistent with international law, Human Rights Watch said today.
A settlement should also ensure the Sahrawis' right to reparations for harm against them since Morocco took control of most of the territory, including compensation and the right to return for those displaced outside the territory and their descendants who have maintained appropriate links to the territory.
"Thirty-five years after the United Nations Security Council agreed on a referendum to resolve the situation in the Western Sahara, political expediency risks trumping the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination," said Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "To fulfill those rights, the Security Council and all countries should ensure the Sahrawi people's right to freely determine their political status."
On October 31, 2025, the Security Council adopted a United States-sponsored resolution, UNSCR 2797, on the Western Sahara and Morocco's claims to the territory. Its stated purpose is to achieve "a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable resolution to the dispute, consistent with the UN Charter," while affirming the "people of Western Sahara's right to self-determination and recognizing "that genuine autonomy could represent a most feasible outcome."
The resolution endorses only Morocco's 2007 autonomy proposal, which does not include independence as an option, provide for the right to reparations, or define the people of Western Sahara who possess the right to self-determination. Human Rights Watch takes no position on the issue of independence for Western Sahara.
Morocco has occupied most of Western Sahara since 1975 when Spain ended its colonial administration in the vast desert territory. There has been an armed conflict ever since between Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro, known as the Polisario Front, an independence movement representing Sahrawis.
In 1991, the UN brokered a ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front and established the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara to monitor the ceasefire and organize a referendum that would allow eligible Sahrawis to choose between independence and integration with Morocco. The referendum never materialized. Morocco claimed that establishing a voter list was impracticable and rejected independence as a referendum option, while the Polisario Front insisted on an option for independence. The armed conflict between Polisario and Morocco resumed in 2020.
International humanitarian law applies in the territory due to the armed conflict and Morocco's occupation. Morocco also maintains a responsibility to uphold its obligations to the population under international human rights law.
At least 173,000 Sahrawi refugees currently reside in remote refugee camps near the town of Tindouf, in Algeria, administered by the Polisario Front. According to World Population Review, a majority of the population of the Western Sahara now consists of Moroccans who started to settle in the region when the territory came under Moroccan occupation and their descendants.
International humanitarian law forbids an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into an occupied territory, and such transfer constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The people of Western Sahara have the right to self-determination under international law, Human Rights Watch said. A 1975 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) reaffirmed the right of Western Sahara peoples to self-determination in accordance with the 1960 General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) on Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
The ICJ has found that in non-self-governing territories, the right to self-determination may be fulfilled through one of the options of "independence, free association with an independent state, or integration with an independent state," and "must be the expression of the free and genuine will of the people concerned." A key aspect of the exercise of the right to self-determination is the "freely expressed wishes of the people concerned."
Human Rights Watch research has found that Moroccan authorities systematically obstruct the work of groups that advocate self-determination in Western Sahara and have repressed any manifestations of opposition to Moroccan rule. They have enforced laws penalizing affronts to Morocco's "territorial integrity;" prevented gatherings and associations supporting Sahrawi self-determination; beat activists in their custody and on the streets, subjected them to torture, imprisoned and sentenced them in trials marred with due process violations and coerced statements; and impeded their freedom of movement.
In December 2025, Human Rights Watch wrote to the United States, United Kingdom, France, Morocco, Algeria, and to the secretary general's special envoy on the Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, requesting information on the negotiations framework on the future of Western Sahara, but has not received a response.
The Security Council should uphold the right to self-determination and ensure that any outcome reflects the genuine will of the Sahrawi people. Any updated proposal by Morocco should also fulfill the Sahrawis' right to reparations for harm against them since Morocco took control of most of the territory by 1976, including compensation and the right to return for those displaced outside the territory and their descendants who have maintained appropriate links to the territory, Human Rights Watch said.
"The Security Council made a promise decades ago to fulfill the Sahrawi People's right to self-determination, but has little to show for it," Salah said. "After 50 years of occupation, it should articulate how it plans to fulfil the full range of human rights for the Sahrawi people, including self-determination."
The United Nations has listed Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory since 1963 and its status hasn't changed despite several countries' recognition of Moroccan sovereignty. It is one of the last remaining such territories recognized by the UN and the only one listed in Africa for an incomplete decolonization process.
Non-self-governing territories are defined under the UN Charter as those "whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government." The African Union recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a member state and has treated the territory as a decolonization question requiring the free and genuine expression of the will of the Sahrawi people.
Background on the Moroccan Initiative and UNSCR 2797
A 2007 Moroccan Initiative for Negotiating an Autonomy Statute for the Sahara Region proposed devolving a measure of autonomy for the people of the Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty, excluding any option for independence, while retaining jurisdiction over national security, defense, external relations, and the judiciary.
Several states have recognized Morocco's sovereignty claim to the Western Sahara, most notably the United States in December 2020. Although the African Union has not recognized it, several of its members have backed the Moroccan autnomy proposal, including Senegal and Kenya.
In 2007, the Polisario Front issued its own proposal for a political solution, which included a referendum on self-determination. It issued an updated proposal in 2025.
UN Security Council resolution 2797 (UNSCR 2797) endorsed the 2007 Moroccan autonomy proposal as a basis for negotiation and called on parties to "engage in these discussions without preconditions, taking as a basis Morocco's Autonomy Proposal, with a view to achieving a final and mutually acceptable political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara," stating that "genuine autonomy could represent a most feasible outcome." UNSCR 2797 does not reference the 1975 World Court advisory opinion or provide guarantees that it will be respected.
The resolution does not specify who the peoples of the Western Sahara are nor whether they include all the Sahrawi people displaced since the 1975 conflict and their descendants. The 1988 settlement plan as agreed upon by the parties mandated that "All Saharans counted in the 1974 census undertaken by the Spanish authorities and aged 18 years or over will have the right to vote in the referendum," including "Saharan refugees counted in the census."
The Polisario rejected the premise of the resolution.
In a departure from previous positions held by many member states, the European Union in January 2026, said it unanimously "updated its position regarding Western Sahara […] aligning it with UNSCR 2797," and saying that negotiations should take "as a basis Morocco's Autonomy Proposal."
De Mistura, the secretary general's special envoy on the Western Sahara, requested that Morocco provide an "expanded and updated autonomy plan" and said that UNSCR 2797 "provides a framework for negotiations. It does not prescribe an outcome."
In an explanatory statement published on October 31, Algeria said that the resolution "fails to reflect the legitimate expectations and aspirations of the people of Western Sahara, represented by the Polisario Front."
International Law on the Right to Self Determination
The right to self-determination is enshrined in the UN Charter and under international human rights law. Articles 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights both state "All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development."
The UN Human Rights Committee, which authoritatively interprets the covenant, stated in its General Comment 12 that all states are obligated to respect and promote the realization of a population's self-determination.
UN General Assembly Resolution 2625 (1970), on the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, and UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (1960) on the Declaration of Granting Independence to Colonial Countries and People, affirm the right to self-determination.
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights holds that all peoples "shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination. They shall freely determine their political status and shall pursue their economic and social development according to the policy they have freely chosen." In a landmark 2022 case brought before the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights on the readmission of Morocco to the African Union in 2017, the court noted:
[I]n view of the fact that part of the SADR's [Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) territory is still under occupation by Morocco, there is no question that State Parties to the Charter have an obligation, individually and collectively, towards the people of SADR to protect their right to self-determination, particularly, by providing assistance in their struggle for freedom […].
