Republic of South Africa
Department
Foreign Affairs
|
University of Pretoria |
Conference
on Multilateralism and
International Law with Western Sahara as case study Hosted by the South
African Department of Foreign Affairs and the University of Pretoria, 4
and 5 December 2008
Conference Communiqué
05.12.08
1. The South African Department of Foreign Affairs
and the University of Pretoria successfully hosted the Conference on
Mutilateralism and International Law with Western Sahara as a Case
Study in Pretoria on 4 and 5 December 2008. This conference was the
final official event of the University of Pretoria centenary
celebrations.
2. The purpose of the conference was to reflect on
the foreign policy precept that promotion of the rules based
international order through multilateralism remains the essential
prerequisite for the resolution of conflict between nations. As a case
study, the conference analysed Africa’s longest-running dispute – the
Western Sahara conflict.
3. The following imminent government representatives,
scholars and experts reflected on the status of the territory under
international law, the principle of self-determination, the respect for
human rights and international humanitarian law, obligations on third
states and the lawfulness and/or legitimacy of natural resource
exploitation in Western Sahara:
- Ms
Sue van der Merwe, South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Dr Sidi Mohamed, Member of
Polisario Front Negotiating team,
Western Sahara
- Prof Abdelhamid El Ouali, Professor of Law, University of
Casablanca, Morocco [see his contribution to the Seminar at
Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria, 08.12.08, under Situation
Report]
- Prof. Macharia Munene, Professor History and International
Relations, United States International University, Nairobi, Kenya
- Mr Toby
Shelley, Journalist and writer, Hitchin, UK
- Prof. Stephen Zunes, Professor
of Politics, University of San
Francisco, USA
- Mr Jacob Mundy, Institute of Arab
and Islamic Studies, University
of Exeter, UK
- Amb Frank Ruddy, US Ambassador
(ret) and Former Deputy Chairman,
Un peacekeeping Mission for Western Sahara (MINURSO), Washington, USA
- Prof. Haroub Othman, Professor of Development Studies, University
of Dar es Salam, Tanzania
- Mr Pedro Pinto Leite, Secretary International Platform of Jurists
of East Timor, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Prof. Christina Chinkin,
Professor of International Law, London
School of Economics, UK
- Prof. Carlos Ruiz Miguel,
Professor of Constitutional Law,
University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- Senator Pierre Galand, President
of the European Coordination
committee in Solidarity with the Saharawi People, Brussels,
Belgium.
- Amb Hans
Corell, Swedish Ambassador (ret) Former Under
Secretary-General of Legal Affairs and Legal Council of the United
Nations, Sweden
- Mr Eric Hagen, Journalist from
Norwegian news service Norwatch,
Oslo, Norway
- Mr Francisco Bastagli, Former
Special Representative of the
Secretary-General in Western Sahara, Italy
- Adv
Madasa, Member of the South African Parliament (ANC).
- Mr Mhamed Khadad, Polisario
Coordinator with United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western
Sahara (MINURSO).
4. The Conference also took note of petitions made to the conference
from:
- Prof. Juan Carlos Velazquez Elizarraras, Professor of
International Law and cooperative Politics, University of Mexico.
- Prof. Juan Soroeta Liceras,
Profesor of International Law,
University of Basque Pais, Spain
- Prof. Marco Balboni,
Professor of International Law, University
of Bologna, Italy
- Prof. Ismael Debesche,
Professor of Political Sciences and
Information, University of Algiers, Algeria.
5. The Conference recognised that Western Sahara is
the last colonial challenge facing the African continent and
participants called upon the International Community to:
- Respect the principles of multilateralism and international
legality in seeking a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political
solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people
of Western Sahara;
- Reaffirm the fundamental and inalienable right of the people of
Western Sahara to self-determination;
- Recognise that the International Court of Justice Advisory
Opinion of 16 October 1975 found that no links of sovereignty existed
between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Western Sahara;
- Recognise the centrality and responsibility of the African Union
and United Nations in the resolution of the conflict;
- Respect the constitutive Act of the African Union, in particular
the principle of the sanctity of inherited colonial borders in Africa
and the right of peoples of former colonial territories to
self-determination and independence;
- Support Western Sahara legal status at the Special Political and
Decolonization committee (Forth Committee) of the United Nations
General Assembly as non-self-governing territory awaiting
decolonisation;
- Support the direct negotiations between the two parties, the
Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco, under the auspices of the
United Nations with a view to achieving self-determination of the
people of Western Sahara;
- Continue the presence of MINURSO as indispensable for the
maintenance of the ceasefire in Western Sahara and the holding of a
free and fair referendum under United Nations auspices;
- Call for expansion the MINURSO mandate to include the monitoring
of, and reporting on, the human rights situation in the MINURSO area of
operations;
- Recognize that citizens living under military occupation suffer
serious, wide-spread and prolonged abuses of their human rights and
that this is the case in Western Sahara;
- Call upon the occupying power in the Western Sahara to respect
the obligations under international law towards inhabitants of the
occupied territory;
- Recognize that sovereignty does not pass to the occupying power,
even under prolonged occupation, as in the case of the Western Sahara;
- Support full respect international human rights law in the
occupied territories, notably the right of freedom of association,
assembly, movement and expression;
- Call upon the Office of the UN High Commission for Human Rights
to assume a larger role in monitoring, reporting and making
recommendations on the issue of human rights abuses in Western Sahara;
- Respect of international humanitarian law and support the
provision of humanitarian assistance to the Saharawi refugees in a way
that is predictable, sustained and timely;
- Support the confidence building measures proposed by the Personal
Envoy to the United Nations Secretary-General to create conductive
climate for the resolution of the conflict;
- End the illegal exploration and exploitation of the natural
resources of Western Sahara and discourage the involvement of foreign
companies in such activities;
- Support the integration of the Maghreb Union as a building block
of the African Union and a vital element of African
integration.
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