Gjennomslag i Europa!

20.februar deltok Unge Høyre sammen med Høyres Studenter på European Democrat Students (EDS) som er studentorganisasjonen til European Peoples Party (EPP), sitt årlige vinterkongressmøte i Berlin. Her fremmet vi en resolusjon som krever folkeavstemning i Vest-Sahara for selvbestemmelse. Unge Høyre er stolte over at resolusjonen ble vedtatt med et stort flertall! Du kan lese resolusjonen i sin helhet her:

«Referendum Now – Western Sahara»

Western Sahara is considered the last colony in Africa. Since 1975 it has been occupied by Morocco.

After decades of protests against the Spanish occupation, the Sahrawi people finally achieved international recognition of their demands: the United Nations acknowledged their right to self-determination. Yet despite this, in October 1975 Morocco invaded their country (“The Green March”) and on 14 November 1975 Morocco, Mauritania and Spain signed the “Tripartite Agreement”. According to this agreement, Spain transferred the administration of Western Sahara to the other two countries.
Part of the population remained in the occupied territories, though many had to abandon their country and flee to refugee camps in the Algerian desert.

Since then, an entire generation of young people has been born and raised in refugee camps and never had the chance to visit their country of origin, their homeland. Today, 156,000 Sahrawi live in refugee camps dependent on humanitarian aid.

In 1991, the Sahrawi independence movement Polisaro and Morocco signed a ceasefire under which the Sahrawi people were promised a referendum on self-determination in 1992. The promised referendum is still yet to come, despite the United Nations efforts in 1999 to count all Sahrawi holding voting rights.

Since 1999, the Moroccan authorities have worked to hinder any efforts in the direction of a referendum, and have stated that they will not acknowledge any other solution than a continuous Moroccan control over Western Sahara.

The UN peacekeeping mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, MINURSO, was deployed in 1991. The aim of the mission is to monitor the ceasefire and seek a settlement plan for the referendum. However, the UN mission is the only UN deployed peacekeeping mission whose mandate does not include monitoring the human rights situation in the country of deployment.

Although there have been some positive developments in recent years, the UN mission has proven unsuccessful overall.

Acknowledging the ceasefire agreement in 1991, European Democrat Students truly believe that the Sahrawi people have the right to self-determination and to be given the opportunity to decide on this through a referendum.

Moreover, European Democrat Students are conscious of the important role that young people should play through institutions, and national and international organisations in the defence of human rights. They have always been sensitive to any violation of young people’s rights in Europe and in other parts of the world.

We, the European Democrat Students, the official students’ organisation of the European People’s Party:

• Recognise and declare our support for the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence after 40 years of conflict.

• Reaffirm our solidarity with the Sahrawi youth in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, in the Sahrawi refugee camps, and also with the youth movement of Polisario, UJSARIO,

• Call for the search for a just solution to the conflict through the holding of a referendum in accordance with the UN resolutions on the subject and, in particular, UN Security Council Resolution 1459,

• Encourage our Member Organisations to join the national and international solidarity movements with the Sahrawi People, supporting their struggle to restore their legitimate rights and backing their efforts to attain a dignified, peaceful and prosperous future for future Sahrawi generations,

• Call upon the UN Security Council to expand the mandate of the MINUROS forces to also include the monitoring the human rights situation in occupied Western Sahara.

Call upon the European Commission, the European Parliament and Member States:

• To call upon the Moroccan government to honour its commitment in the 1991 ceasefire agreement to respect the Sahrawi people’s legitimate right to self-determination and independence.