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UN Renews Support to Political Process to Resolve Western Sahara Dispute

Morocco’s Permanent representative to the UN Omar Hilale. (United Nations)
Morocco’s Permanent representative to the UN Omar Hilale. (United Nations)
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UN Renews Support to Political Process to Resolve Western Sahara Dispute

Morocco’s Permanent representative to the UN Omar Hilale. (United Nations)
Morocco’s Permanent representative to the UN Omar Hilale. (United Nations)

The United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee, known as the Fourth Committee, adopted on Friday a resolution reiterating its support to the political process under the exclusive UN auspices to resolve the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.

The resolution calls on all parties to cooperate fully with the UN Secretary-General and his personal envoy to achieve a “just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution” to the Moroccan Sahara issue.

It didn’t mention the referendum mentioned in previous resolutions adopted by the Security Council over the past two decades.

The UN General Assembly also welcomed this resolution.

The text supports the Security Council resolutions issued since 2007, which have enshrined the pre-eminence of the autonomy initiative presented by Morocco.

The executive body and the international community welcomed the initiative as a serious and credible initiative for the final settlement of this regional dispute within the framework of the kingdom’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The text also supports the recommendations of resolutions 2440, 2468, 2494 and 2548, enshrined in resolution 2602, adopted on October 29, 2021, which determine the parameters of the solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, namely a political solution that is realistic, pragmatic, sustainable and based on compromise.

These Security Council resolutions also commend the measures and initiatives taken by Morocco to promote and protect human rights in its southern provinces, and the role played by the National Human Rights Council Commissions in Laayoune and Dakhla, as well as Morocco's interaction with the mechanisms of the UN Human Rights Council.

They also reiterate the request of the UN executive body to register and census the populations of the Tindouf camps, and demand the deployment of the necessary efforts to this end.

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UN Rapporteur Calls for Global Action to Stop ‘Genocide’ in Gaza

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference following an Emergency Conference of States, hosted by Colombia and South Africa, to discuss measures against Israel in relation to the conflict in Gaza, in Bogota, Colombia, July 15, 2025. (Reuters)
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference following an Emergency Conference of States, hosted by Colombia and South Africa, to discuss measures against Israel in relation to the conflict in Gaza, in Bogota, Colombia, July 15, 2025. (Reuters)
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UN Rapporteur Calls for Global Action to Stop ‘Genocide’ in Gaza

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference following an Emergency Conference of States, hosted by Colombia and South Africa, to discuss measures against Israel in relation to the conflict in Gaza, in Bogota, Colombia, July 15, 2025. (Reuters)
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference following an Emergency Conference of States, hosted by Colombia and South Africa, to discuss measures against Israel in relation to the conflict in Gaza, in Bogota, Colombia, July 15, 2025. (Reuters)

The United Nations’ special rapporteur for Gaza and the West Bank said Tuesday that it's time for nations around the world to take concrete actions to stop what she called the “genocide” in Gaza.

Francesca Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries meeting in Colombia’s capital to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and ways that nations can try to stop Israel’s military offensive in the territory. Many of the participating nations have described the violence as genocide against the Palestinians.

“Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel ... and ensure its private sector does the same,” Albanese said. “The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal.”

The two-day conference organized by the governments of Colombia and South Africa is being attended mostly by developing nations, although the governments of Spain, Ireland and China have also sent delegates.

Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel.”

Analysts say it’s not clear whether the conference's participating countries have enough leverage over Israel to force it to change its policies in Gaza, where more than 58,000 people have been killed in Israeli military operations following a deadly Hamas attack on Israel in 2023. The death toll comes from the health ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas government and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

“The United States has so far failed to influence Israel’s behavior ... so it is naive to think that this group of countries can have any influence over (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s behavior or on the government of Israel,” said Sandra Borda, a professor of international relations at Bogota’s Los Andes University.

She said, however, that the conference will enable some nations of the Global South to clarify their position toward the conflict and have their voices heard.

The conference is co-chaired by the governments of South Africa and Colombia, which last year suspended coal exports to Israeli power plants, and includes the participation of members of The Hague Group, a coalition of eight nations that earlier this year pledged to cut military ties with Israel and to comply with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

For decades, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party has compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank with its own history of oppression under the harsh apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands” before ending in 1994.

South Africa’s current argument is rooted in the sentiment that Palestinians have been oppressed in their homeland as Black South Africans were under apartheid.

The gathering comes as the European Union weighs various measures against Israel that include a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, an arms embargo and individual sanctions against Israeli officials, who are found to be blocking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Colombia’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Mauricio Jaramillo said Monday that the nations participating in the Bogota meeting, which also include Qatar and Türkiye, will be discussing diplomatic and judicial measures that can be taken to put more pressure on Israel to cease its attacks.

The Colombian official described Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as an affront to the international order.

“This is not just about Palestine” Jaramillo said in a press conference. “It is about defending international law... and the right to self-determination.”