Calls are intensifying for the Sahara issue to be withdrawn from the United Nations’ Special Committee on Decolonization (C24), with advocates arguing that recent diplomatic developments, including Security Council Resolution 2797, have fundamentally reframed the dispute as a political and regional question that should be settled on the basis of Morocco’s autonomy plan rather than a classical decolonization case.
The debate comes ahead of the C24’s scheduled June 16–17 session, which observers say could highlight growing inconsistencies within the UN system.
By keeping the Western Sahara issue on the C24 agenda, the United Nations risks maintaining an institutional disconnect with the Security Council, which has taken the lead in reframing the dispute as a political and regional matter requiring a negotiated solution on the basis of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.
Resolution 2797 consolidates a clear evolution in UN language, emphasizing a “realistic, pragmatic and durable” settlement.
While the Security Council treats Western Sahara as a regional political dispute requiring compromise between parties, the General Assembly and its Fourth Committee continue to approach it under the rubric of self-determination and decolonization, placing it within the purview of the C24.
Morocco has long rejected this characterization, maintaining that the issue is one of territorial integrity rather than decolonization. Rabat argues that its autonomy proposal provides a credible and workable solution consistent with current geopolitical and economic realities.
In this view, continuing to handle the issue within the C24 framework risks perpetuating an outdated interpretation and an ideological anachronism that does not reflect developments on the ground or the direction of UN diplomacy.
Several major powers, including the United States, France, the UK and Spain as well as most of Europe, the Arab world and Africa and a growing number of Latin American states have expressed support for Morocco’s autonomy initiative, lending it increased international legitimacy.
This backing underscores a wider recognition that the dispute is best addressed through political negotiation on the basis of the autonomy plan as a win-win solution.