Western Sahara, natural’s resources and foreign domination

Abstract

Western Sahara is the last colony on the African continent that, to this day, has still not completed its decolonization process -established in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514- for which the Sahrawi people have been legitimately fighting for over 50 years, enduring occupation, exile, refuge, and all forms of repressive and systematic foreign colonialism directed at their land and their people. Currently, one of these forms of colonialism, exercised on a large scale with external and global support and funding, is the plundering of its natural resources, both traditional (mainly phosphate and fishing) and emerging (renewable resources, solar and wind energy). Despite all this, however, states, primarily the major powers, are the ones contradicting international law, both private and public, from the United Nations to the European Courts of Justice (CJEU, judgments 2019 and October 2024), and continue to disregard all legal and judicial resolutions concerning Western Sahara. Specifically, since the United Nations established Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory in 1963, the Sahrawi people continue to be deprived of the effective exercise of their right to self-determination. In this context, Morocco continues to attract large foreign investments to the occupied Western Sahara through financial and commercial means, seeking to further establish itself and exploit the natural and territorial resources of the Sahrawi people, even though this territory is neither part of Morocco nor under its sovereignty as recognized by international law.