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Abstract
The illegality of facilitating the exploitation of natural resources by an occupying power in non-self-governing territories is well-established in international law, yet – as in such cases as Namibia and East Timor – the legal principles are often overlooked by foreign corporations and their governments. The resource-rich territory of Western Sahara, under Moroccan occupation since 1975, is no exception, as European, North American, and Australian companies have sought to take advantage of lucrative fishing grounds or mineral deposits. While some have tried to claim that such resource extraction is legal since Morocco reinvests the money it receives into the territory through ambitious development programs, the benefits of such ‘development' have largely gone to Moroccan settlers and occupation authorities, not the indigenous population. As with Namibia and East Timor, it may fall to global civil society to pressure such companies, through boycotts and divestment campaigns, to end their illegal exploitation of Western Sahara's natural resources.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Stephen Zunes is a prominent specialist on US Middle East policy. Professor Zunes has presented numerous lectures and conference papers in the United States and over a dozen foreign countries. He has traveled frequently to the Middle East and other conflict regions, meeting with prominent government officials, scholars, and dissidents. He has served as a political analyst for local, national, and international radio and television, and as a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, Huffington Post, Truthout, Alternet, and Common Dreams. He has published scores of articles in academic journals, anthologies, magazines, and newspaper op-ed pages on such topics as US foreign policy, Middle Eastern politics, Latin American politics, African politics, human rights, arms control, social movements, and nonviolent action.
Notes
1 International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion on Western Sahara (The Hague: International Court of Justice, 1975).
2 United Nations General Assembly, ‘Report of the United Nations Visiting Mission to Spanish Sahara’, Official Records: Thirtieth Session, Supplement no. 23, vol. 3, chap. XIII, A/10023/Add.5 (New York: United Nations, 1977).
3 Jacob Andrew Mundy, ‘Neutrality or Complicity? The United States and the 1975 Moroccan Takeover of the Spanish Sahara’, Journal of North African Studies 11, no. 3 (2006): 275–306.
4 ‘Declaration of Principles on Western Sahara by Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania’, United Nations Treaty Series, 1975, November 19, 1975, 988, 1-14450, 259.
5 United Nations Security Council Resolution 690, The Situation Concerning Western Sahara (April 29, 1991), http://www.un.org/en/sc/repertoire/89-92/Chapter%208/AFRICA/item%2008_Western%20Sahara_.pdf.
6 Official Records of the Security Council, Forty-fifth Year, Supplement for April, May, June 1990, S/21360.
7 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2072, ‘Ifni and Spanish Sahara’, United Nations Yearbook 1965 (New York: United Nations Office of Public information, 1967), 585.
8 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2229, Question of Ifni and Spanish Sahara (December 20, 1966), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/005/32/IMG/NR000532.pdf?OpenElement.
9 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2983, The Question of Spanish Sahara (December 14, 1972), http://daccess-ods.un.org/TMP/7801474.33280945.html.
10 United Nations Office of Public Information, ’Spanish Sahara’, United Nations Yearbook 1972 (New York: United Nations Office of Public information, 1975), 569–70, 579–80.
11 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3292, ‘Spanish Sahara’, United Nations Yearbook 1974 (New York: United Nations Office of Public information, 1977), 794, 805–6.
12 United Nations General Assembly, ‘Report of the United Nations Visiting Mission to Spanish Sahara, Official Records: Thirtieth Session, Supplement no. 23, vol. 3, chap. XIII, A/10023/Add.5 (New York: United Nations, 1977).
13 For analysis, see Thomas M. Franck, ’The Stealing of the Sahara’, American Journal of International Law 70, no. 4 (1976): 694–721; Thomas M. Franck, ‘‘Theory and Practice of Decolonization’, in War and Refugees: The Western Sahara Conflict, ed. Richard Lawless and Laila Monahan (New York: Pinter, 1987).
14 United Nations Security Council Resolution 377, The Situation Concerning Western Sahara (October 22, 1975), http://daccess-ods.un.org/TMP/7421183.58612061.html.
15 Karel Wellens, ed., Resolutions and Statements of the United Nations, 1945–1989 (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1990), 49.
16 United Nations Security Council, Documents Officiels 30 (1975): 29.
17 Wellens, Resolutions and Statements of the United Nations, 1945–1989, 49.
18 United Nations Security Council, Presidential Appeal, November 6, 1975.
19 Wellens, Resolutions and Statements of the United Nations, 1945–1989, 49–50.
20 Daniel Patrick Moynihan, A Dangerous Place (Boston: Little, Brown, 1980), 247.
21 ‘Declaration of Principles on Western Sahara by Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania’, United Nations Treaty Series, 1975, November 19, 1975, 988, 1-14450, 259.
22 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3248A, Question of Western Sahara (December 10, 1975), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/001/71/IMG/NR000171.pdf?OpenElement.
23 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3248B, Question of Western Sahara (December 10, 1975), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/001/71/IMG/NR000171.pdf?OpenElement.
24 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 31/45, Question of Western Sahara (December 1, 1976), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/302/28/IMG/NR030228.pdf?OpenElement. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was the precursor to the African Union (AU).
25 See, for example, United Nations General Assembly, Question of Western Sahara (November 21, 1979), http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/34/a34res37.pdf.
26 See United Nations Security Council Resolutions, http://www.un.org/en/sc/documents/resolutions/.
27 See United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1182, 1215, and 1359, available at http://www.un.org/en/sc/documents/resolutions/.
28 United Nations Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation Concerning Western Sahara, S/2001/613 (June 20, 2001).
29 Louise Charboneau and Aziz el Yaakoubi, ‘U.S. Proposes U.N. Western Sahara Rights Monitor; Morocco Warns of “Missteps”’, Reuters, April 17, 2013, http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/17/uk-westernsahara-un-idUKBRE93G00Z20130417.
30 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514, Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (December 14, 1960), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/152/88/IMG/NR015288.pdf?OpenElement.
31 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1803, Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources (December 14, 1962), http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/resources.pdf.
32 See, for example, International Court of Justice, ’Certain Phosphate Lands in Nauru’ (Nauru v. Australia), Application Instituting Proceedings Filed in the Registry of the Court on 19 May 1989 (The Hague: International Court of Justice, 1989); International Court of Justice, ‘East Timor’ (Portugal v Australia), Application Instituting Proceedings Filed in the Registry of the Court on 22 February 1991 (The Hague: International Court of Justice, 1991).
33 UN General Assembly Resolution 52/72, Economic and Other Activities which Affect the Interests of the Peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories (December 10, 1997), http://www.un.org/ga/documents/gares52/res5272.htm.
34 United Nations Security Council, Letter dated 29 January 2002 from the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, the Legal Counsel, addressed to the President of the Security Council, S/2002/161 (February 12, 2002).
35 Ibid. See also Carola Hoyos and Toby Shelley, ‘UN Throws Doubt on Oil Deals in Western Sahara’, Financial Times, February 6, 2002, 7; ‘Security Council Disagrees Over Oil Prospecting in W Sahara’, Agence France Presse, February 20, 2002.
36 Tony Hodges and Anthony G. Pazzanita, Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara. 3rd ed. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006), 347–50.
37 Quoted in Simon Robinson, ‘Black Gold’, Time, October 28, 2002, A10.
38 Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, ‘African Oil: A Priority for US National Security and African Development’ (Jerusalem: IASPS, 2002).
39 Toby Shelley, ‘Premier Oil Acquires Stakes in West Africa’, Financial Times, May 29, 2003: 25; Toby Shelley, ‘Oil Groups Target NW Africa: The Little-Explored Region is Attracting Much International Interest’, Financial Times, July 12, 2002, 28.
40 Stefan Armbruster, ‘Western Sahara's Future Hinges on Oil’, BBC News Online, March 4, 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2758829.stm (accessed October 8, 2004).
41 Janos Besenyo, Western Sahara (Pecs: Publikon Publishers, 2000), 18.
42 Wayne Madsen, ‘Big Oil and James Baker Target the Western Sahara’, Counter Punch, January 8, 2003, http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen01082003.html (accessed October 8, 2004). See also Frank Bruni, ‘A Loyal Lieutenant [i.e. Tutwiler] Re-enlists to Serve the Bush Brigade’, New York Times, March 26, 2001, A12.
43 Quoted in Jacob Mundy, ‘Mixing Occupation and Oil in Western Sahara’, CorpWatch, July 21, 2005, http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12506 (accessed September 2006).
44 Ministry of Finance, Norway, ‘Recommendation on Exclusion from the Government Petroleum Fund's Investment Universe of the Company Kerr-McGee Corporation’, June 6, 2005, http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fin/tema/statens_pensjonsfond/ansvarlige-investeringer/tilradninger-og-brev-fra-etikkradet/Recommendation-on-Exclusion-from-the-Government-Petroleum-Funds-Investment-Universe-of-the-Company-Kerr-McGee-Corporation.html?id=419582.
45 Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA), PESA News, April–May 2003, 53–8.
46 European Commission, Proposal for Council Decision on the Conclusion of the Protocol between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco Setting out the Fishing Opportunities and Financial Contribution Provided for in the Fisheries Partnership Agreement in Force between the two Parties (Brussels: European Commission, 2013), http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52013PC0648&from=EN.
47 Per Liljas, ‘There's a New Terrorist Threat Emerging in Western Sahara, and the World Isn't Paying Attention’, Time, August 8, 2014.
48 Sarah A. Topol, ‘Amid Moroccan Investment in Western Sahara, Tensions Simmer’, Bloomberg Business, May 30, 2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-05-30/amid-moroccan-investment-in-western-sahara-tensions-simmer.
49 Aidan Lewis, ‘Morocco's Fish fight: High Stakes over Western Sahara’, BBC News, December 15, 2011, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-16101666.
50 African Union, Communiqué of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU), at its 496th meeting held on 27 March 2015, on the situation in Western Sahara, http://www.peaceau.org/en/article/communique-of-the-peace-and-security-council-of-the-african-union-au-at-its-496th-meeting-held-on-27-march-2015-on-the-situation-in-western-sahara#sthash.TYOHI9YB.dpuf.
51 Stephen Zunes, ‘Hillary Clinton, Phosphates, and the Western Sahara’, National Catholic Reporter, May 12, 2015.
52 Stephen Zunes, ‘Upsurge in Repression Challenges Nonviolent Resistance in Western Sahara’, Open Democracy, November 17, 2010.
53 United Nations Security Council, Letter dated 16 April 2007 from the Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council, S/2007/210 (April 16, 2007).
54 Human Rights Watch, Freedom in the World 2013 (Washington, DC: Human Rights Watch, 2013).
55 Carolotta Gall, ‘Spanish Judge Accuses Moroccan Former Officials of Genocide in Western Sahara’, New York Times, April 10, 2015.
56 Amnesty International, ‘Morocco: Endemic Torture Used to Incriminate Suspects, Gag Dissent’, Amnesty International, May 19, 2015, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/05/morocco-endemic-torture/.