Some forty countries reaffirmed on Tuesday their support for Morocco’s full sovereignty over its Sahara during the 59th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), held between June 16 and July 9 at Geneva’s Palais des Nations.
In a statement delivered by Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Ambassador Omar Zniber, the group highlighted the Kingdom’s “constructive, voluntary, and profound” interaction with the UN human rights system.
“Morocco is engaged since many years in constructive, voluntary and profound interaction with the United Nations human rights system, in particular the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), for the promotion and respect of human rights throughout its entire territory,” Zniber said in his statement under item 2 of the session’s agenda, which deals with interaction with the OHCHR.
In its resolutions on the Sahara issue, he recalled, the Security Council welcomes the role played by the National and Regional Human Rights Commissions in Dakhla and Laayoune and the interaction between Morocco and the mechanisms under the special procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
In its statement, the group also welcomed the opening of General Consulates in the cities of Dakhla and Laâyoune by many countries, which constitute a “lever for strengthening economic cooperation and investment, for the benefit of local populations, as well as regional and continental development.”
“The Sahara issue is a political dispute handled by the Security Council that recognizes the pre-eminence of the Autonomy Initiative presented by Morocco as credible and serious for a definitive political solution to this regional dispute over the Sahara,” it recalls.
In this regard, the group reaffirms its support for the efforts aiming to relaunch the political process on the basis of the format established during the two roundtables in Geneva, in accordance with Security Council resolutions, in particular the latest resolution 2756 of October 31st, 2024, aimed at achieving a political, realistic, pragmatic, lasting, and compromise-based solution to this regional dispute.
“The resolution of this regional dispute will contribute to achieving the legitimate aspirations of the African and Arab peoples in terms of integration and development, which is considered as an objective that Morocco continues to pursue and for which it makes sincere and ongoing efforts,” the ambassador noted.
MAP: 17 June 2025
