The support group for Morocco’s territorial integrity underlined that the interaction of Member States with the Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) must remain bilateral and be protected from any instrumentalization.
On the occasion of the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), the group of 36 States that support Morocco’s full sovereignty over its Saharan provinces argued that such instrumentalization “engenders counterproductive political debates within the Council.”
In a communiqué delivered by Burkina Faso’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative, Dieudonné Désiré Sougouri, the support group praised the opening by several countries of consulates general in the Moroccan cities of Dakhla and Laayoune, as a lever for strengthening economic cooperation and investment, to benefit local populations and promote regional and continental development.
In a similar context, the group stressed that the Sahara conflict is a political dispute addressed within the framework of the Security Council, which recognizes the pre-eminence of the Moroccan Autonomy Plan as a credible and serious option for a definitive political solution to the Sahara.
The support group also expressed its support for the efforts of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s personal envoy for the Sahara, Staffan De Mistura, to relaunch the United Nations (UN) political process based on the previously agreed format at the two Geneva round tables, in line with Security Council (SC) resolutions, particularly resolution 2602 of October 29, 2021, aimed at achieving a realistic, pragmatic, and lasting political solution to this regional dispute.
Burkina Faso’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary assured that the resolution of this regional dispute will help achieve the legitimate aspirations of African and Arab peoples in terms of integration and development, which Morocco aspires to achieve through sincere and constant initiatives.
Sougouri noted that Morocco has, for several years, been committed to constructive, voluntary, and in-depth interaction with the United Nations (UN) human rights system, in particular the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), for the promotion and respect of human rights in the country.
In this regard, the group also recalled that the Security Council (SC), in its resolutions on the Sahara conflict, commends the role played by the National and Regional Human Rights Commissions (CNDH) in Dakhla and Laayoune and the cooperation between Morocco and the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s (HRC) special procedures mechanisms.