MAP
New York (U.N.) – The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday held consultations on the Sahara issue.
During these consultations, Council members were briefed by the U.N. Secretary General’s Personal Envoy, Christopher Ross, as well as the SG Personal Representative, Hani Abdel Aziz, on the latest developments related to the issue of Moroccan Sahara.
These consultations have been prelude to the extension, next week, of the mandate of MINURSO.
Members of the Security Council “welcomed the efforts of the U.N. Secretary General’s Personal Envoy, Christopher Ross, to help the parties reach a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution,” said the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, whose country holds the rotating Council presidency for April.
Member states also welcomed “the parties’ agreement to hold further informal discussions this year,” Rice said.
Further talks are planned in June and July.
Regarding human rights, several Council members noted that Morocco has opened two branches of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) in Dakhla and Laayoune, said Rice in a press statement.
Several diplomats who participated in these consultations, in fact, welcomed the recent initiatives announced by the Kingdom in terms of human rights.
Morocco has proposed a “serious approach” to address the issue of human rights, diplomat said, referring to the setting up of the CNDH with branches in the southern provinces.
And “this was a general consensus among Council members,” the diplomat told MAP news agency.
In its latest report on the Sahara, the U.N. noted the initiatives taken by Morocco in the field of human rights and “the establishment of a National Human Rights Council (CNDH),” with branches in Laayoune and Dakhla, as part of reforms initiated by HM King Mohammed VI.
The U.N. also reaffirmed the commitment to the Security Council resolutions which advocate finding a just, lasting and mutually acceptable to the artificial dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.
Regarding the census, and for the third consecutive year and ahead of Algeria’s continued refusal to allow the census of population of the Tindouf camps, in accordance with its terms and principles, the Secretary-General said that the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has “continued its dialogue with the host country,” in this case Algeria.
The 15-nation Security Council Resolution 1979 (April 2011) called on UNHCR to continue its consideration of the registration of population in the Tindouf camps in Algeria.
During the consultations of the U.N. Security Council, the kidnapping of three Western aid workers in the Tindouf camps in Algeria, was also mentioned, as it was in the report of Ban Ki-moon.
The report of the U.N. Secretary General expressed, in this sense, the concern of the United Nations vis-à-vis the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel region.
