Maintaining the Sahara issue on the decolonization agenda of the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly is an anomaly that runs against the UN charter and the mandate of the Security Council. Maintaining the Sahara in the fourth committee creates confusion at the UN as the artificial dispute over Morocco’s southern provinces continues to be examined by both the Security Council and the Fourth Committee. The repercussions of such incoherence has an impact on the credibility as it goes in total contradiction with the Security Council approach, which examines the issue as part of Article VI relating to the peaceful resolution of conflictsMoreover, the Security Council has never considered the Sahara dispute as a decolonization issue. The terminology used in the Security Council resolution has never labelled the conflict as a decolonization issue and has never called the Sahara as an occupied territory. The Security Council uses accurate terms calling the Sahara issue a “regional conflict.”

Source: The North Africa Journal October 18, 2019 11:15 UTC