Hibapress
Ivory Coast reiterated, in New York, its “full support” for the autonomy plan presented by Morocco in 2007 to definitively close the regional dispute around the Moroccan Sahara.
“Ivory Coast would like to reaffirm its full support for the broad autonomy initiative presented by Morocco,” underlined the representative of Ivory Coast before the 4th committee of the UN General Assembly, noting that This Moroccan proposal is consistent with the Charter of the United Nations and Security Council resolutions, as well as international law.
In this regard, he was delighted with “this attested credibility, in particular by the strong international support from which the autonomy plan benefits”.
“This positive approach gives the inhabitants of the Moroccan Sahara important political, economic and social prerogatives,” he said, noting that the populations of the Moroccan Sahara choose their representatives freely and democratically. Some of these local elected officials participated in the round tables in Geneva as well as in the work of the C24, recalled the diplomat.
He also reaffirmed his country’s “full” support for the UN Secretary General and his personal envoy for the Moroccan Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, for their commitment aimed at achieving a lasting and mutually peaceful political solution. acceptable to this regional dispute.
The Ivorian diplomat also welcomed Morocco’s firm attachment to the political process carried out under the exclusive auspices of the UN SG, adding that his country is in favor of relaunching this UN process and “consequently encourages M . de Mistura in its efforts to resume the round tables already organized in Geneva in December 2018 and March 2019.
“The hope aroused by these important meetings in which all stakeholders participated deserves to be consolidated,” he said, expressing his country’s support for Security Council resolutions calling for the organization of other round tables in the same format and with the same participants, namely Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario.
He encouraged all parties to remain mobilized in a spirit of realism and compromise with a view to achieving a peaceful and definitive outcome to this regional dispute.
At the same time, the representative of Côte d’Ivoire welcomed the dynamic of socio-economic development in the southern provinces, stressing that the new development model launched in 2015 consolidates the relevance of the Moroccan initiative of ‘autonomy.
He noted that the significant investments benefiting the Moroccan Sahara region have a positive impact on the well-being of its inhabitants and raise human development indices.
At the social level, the diplomat indicated that his country welcomes with satisfaction the substantial actions carried out by Morocco aimed at promoting human rights in the Moroccan Sahara region and welcomes to this end the role of the regional commissions of the National Council of human rights in Dakhla and Laâyoune, as well as Morocco’s full cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council.
“These laudable actions of Morocco have rightly been recognized by the Security Council,” he said.
Regarding human rights violations in the Tindouf camps, the Ivorian diplomat indicated that these abuses “remain a source of concern” for his country, which calls for the registration and census of sequestered populations like the recommends the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and relevant provisions of international humanitarian law and Security Council resolutions including Resolution 2703.
He also praised Morocco’s attachment to existing military agreements.
