Self-determination

Self-determination does not necessarily mean independence

According to an international non-governmental organisation, self-determination does not necessarily mean independence.

Under point eight of the Tenth Session of the Human Rights' Council relating to "the follow-up and application of the Declaration and the Vienna programme of action", the representative of the International Democratice Centre (IDC) carefully stated that the resolution on self-determination, brandished about at every occasion by the Polisario and Algeria, does not foresee only independence but also integration or autonomy. 

The same resolution "stipulates that every attempt aimed at partially or totally destroying national unity and the terrirotial integrity of a country is incompatible with the aims and principles of the Charter of the United Nations", declared M. Semlali Aabadila.  "This is exactly where Algeria's power persists and it only exacerbates the sufferings of those detained against their will in Tindouf" he emphasised, deploring the fact "that even today there are still countries which do not care about their obligations".

He stated that "states have a duty to protect individuals from abuses which non-state parties might commit on their territory", citing the example of "the Polisario where the host country not only encourages but participates wrongly in violating this universal rule".

He went on to declare that "the only thing, truly put in place by this host country, Algeria, is concealing from the world the bitter reality of the terrible living conditions of the Moroccan population detained in the camps of Tindouf against their will, while simultaneously taking refuge behind the pseudo-slogan "the right to self-determination does not necessarily mean independence".

M. Aabadila remembered that the United Nations' Security Council described the Moroccan proposal for Autonomy for the Sahara as "credible and serious", emphasising that it "is the only solution which can both bring about an end to the violations of human rights in these camps as well as ensuring the development and flourishing of both nations". 

March 2009