{"id":46094,"date":"2026-06-01T21:21:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=46094"},"modified":"2026-06-01T21:21:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:21:51","slug":"western-sahara-and-the-crisis-of-international-legitimacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/western-sahara-and-the-crisis-of-international-legitimacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Sahara and the Crisis of International Legitimacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diplomacy<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

The issue of Western Sahara is no longer merely about territory. It has become a revealing test of whether international law, self-determination and decolonisation principles still retain meaning in an increasingly transactional world order. Are we headed towards a quiet collapse of principle?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Vijay Makhan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The question of Western Sahara has once again surfaced quietly but significantly within diplomatic circles. Quietly, because the issue no longer commands the global attention it once did. Significantly, because recent developments at the United Nations Security Council may well mark yet another step in the gradual erosion of principles that the international community once claimed to uphold with conviction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>The Western Sahara dispute represents the last unresolved decolonization issue in Africa. It sits at the core of a crisis of international legitimacy, pitting Morocco\u2019s claim of sovereignty against the Polisario Front’s pursuit of independence, all while the UN grapples with competing geopolitical interests.\u00a0 Picture shows demonstration in support of Western Sahara’s self-determination, Madrid, 2006. Pic – Wiki Commons<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For countries such as Mauritius, the issue is not merely a distant territorial dispute in North Africa. It touches directly upon questions of decolonisation, self-determination and the credibility of international law itself. These are principles upon which many formerly colonised states constructed both their diplomacy and their faith in the multilateral system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Western Sahara was placed on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories in 1963. The International Court of Justice, in its Advisory Opinion of 16 October 1975, concluded that there existed no ties of territorial sovereignty between Morocco and Western Sahara capable of affecting the application of Resolution 1514 on decolonisation and self-determination. The principle appeared clear: the people of Western Sahara were entitled to determine their own future through the free and genuine expression of their will.<\/span><\/p>\n

The admission of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) into the Organisation of African Unity in 1984 was itself a major turning point in Africa\u2019s diplomatic history. It reflected the position taken by a significant number of African states that the question of Western Sahara was fundamentally one of decolonisation and self-determination. The issue was sufficiently consequential that Morocco withdrew from the OAU following that admission, only returning decades later to the successor African Union, within which the SADR remains a member state to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n

This historical reality is often understated in contemporary diplomatic discussions. Yet it remains important because it demonstrates that the issue has never merely been a bilateral disagreement. It has long occupied a recognised place within Africa\u2019s own institutional and political history.<\/span><\/p>\n

The establishment of MINURSO in 1991 reflected precisely that understanding. It is worth recalling that MINURSO stands for the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. The referendum was not an incidental detail. It was the very foundation upon which the peace process rested.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years, however, the promised referendum became progressively elusive. Procedural disputes, disagreements over voter eligibility and diplomatic manoeuvring slowly transformed what was initially presented as a transitional mechanism into an apparently permanent limbo.<\/span><\/p>\n

The adoption by the Security Council of Resolution 2797 in October 2025 has deepened concerns in many quarters. While the resolution formally renews the mandate of MINURSO, it also reflects a subtle but important political shift by encouraging negotiations \u201ctaking as basis Morocco\u2019s Autonomy Proposal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The wording may appear diplomatic and nuanced. Yet, diplomacy often advances through nuance. Language matters greatly within the United Nations system because it gradually shapes political legitimacy and international perception.<\/span><\/p>\n

Certain powers may interpret the new orientation as pragmatic realism. Others may regard it as the slow normalisation of a fait accompli<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is troubling is not only the substance of the shift but the broader context within which it occurs. The contemporary international order increasingly appears driven less by principle than by transactional calculations, geopolitical alignments and strategic interests.<\/span><\/p>\n

One cannot entirely dissociate the present dynamics from the wider geopolitical environment. Morocco\u2019s rapprochement with Israel under the Abraham Accords and the subsequent recognition by the United States of Moroccan sovereignty claims over Western Sahara introduced a new geopolitical equation into the dossier. Added to this are the strategic and economic considerations surrounding the territory itself: phosphates, fisheries and other mineral resources that inevitably attract major power interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

The danger is that decolonisation issues risk being reframed less through the lens of international legality than through the prism of strategic bargaining.<\/span><\/p>\n

This should concern not only Africa but all states that continue to place their trust in the integrity of the international system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mauritius understands perhaps better than many the importance of consistency on such matters. Throughout its history, Mauritius supported liberation movements and anti-colonial struggles, including the ANC, SWAPO, FRELIMO, MPLA and the Polisario Front. That position was never simply ideological posturing. It was rooted in the conviction that international law and decolonisation principles offered smaller and vulnerable states a measure of protection within an unequal world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mauritius itself consistently invoked Resolution 1514 in its long struggle over the Chagos Archipelago. The country appealed to international legality, multilateral diplomacy and the institutions of the United Nations because it believed that principles should apply universally rather than selectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

It would therefore be difficult — and indeed contradictory — for Mauritius to even consider abandoning those same principles when applied elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

This does not mean ignoring geopolitical realities. Nor does it require hostility toward Morocco, an important African state with legitimate security and regional concerns. Africa has no interest in perpetuating division or confrontation within the continent.<\/span><\/p>\n

But neither should Africa become indifferent to the gradual weakening of principles that historically underpinned its own liberation struggles.<\/span><\/p>\n

The issue ultimately transcends Western Sahara itself. It concerns whether international legitimacy can survive in an era increasingly shaped by power politics, selective morality and strategic expediency.<\/span><\/p>\n

The world today often speaks of a \u201crules-based international order.\u201d Yet rules lose credibility when they appear flexible for the powerful and rigid for the weak. International law cannot indefinitely survive as an instrument selectively invoked according to geopolitical convenience.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is at stake is therefore not only the future of Western Sahara but also the future credibility of the multilateral system itself on which I have recently written.<\/span><\/p>\n

And perhaps that is the deeper lament surrounding the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not simply that a decolonisation question remains unresolved after decades, but that the world appears to be quietly learning to live with unresolved principles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 29 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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