Morocco highlights robust guarantees for its Sahara autonomy plan at un seminar

The Permanent Mission of Morocco to the United Nations in New York recently hosted an international seminar on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. This significant gathering focused on the crucial guarantees essential for implementing territorial autonomy agreements, drawing together distinguished academics and experts who shared insights from various global autonomy experiences.

During his opening remarks, Omar Hilale, Morocco’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN, underscored the extraordinary timing of this meeting. He highlighted the substantial diplomatic strides made concerning the Sahara issue, particularly the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2797 last October.

Ambassador Hilale emphasized that this resolution marked a pivotal moment, unequivocally establishing Morocco’s autonomy plan, under Moroccan sovereignty, as the exclusive foundation for a negotiated and mutually acceptable political resolution.

He further noted that the process was now just four months away from the Security Council’s review of a new resolution on the Sahara. This period is characterized by a favorable international momentum, with more than 130 UN member states, including three permanent members of the Security Council—the United States, France, and the United Kingdom—expressing their support for the autonomy initiative.

The diplomat linked this positive diplomatic trajectory to the significant development initiatives underway in Morocco’s Southern Provinces. He cited substantial investments in infrastructure, renewable energy projects, higher education, healthcare, and other sectors, including a major data center project in Dakhla and the future deep-water port on the Atlantic coast. For Ambassador Hilale, this tangible progress demonstrates that the autonomy plan is far more than a political slogan; it represents a concrete governance project, buttressed by robust constitutional, institutional, and democratic safeguards.

He explained that this year’s theme centered on a core principle: “in a negotiated autonomy, there is no inherent value unless that autonomy is guaranteed.” The Moroccan initiative, he reiterated, envisions the populations of the Sahara managing their own affairs through dedicated legislative, executive, and judicial bodies endowed with distinct powers.

A comparative academic framework

Marc Finaud, the seminar’s moderator and a senior advisor and research fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, recalled that Morocco’s initiative was presented to the Security Council on April 11, 2007. He clarified that this academic session was not intended to replace UN-led negotiations but rather to inform them through international comparative analyses.

Finaud detailed key provisions of the initiative, including the participation of the Sahara’s populations, referendary consultation, the principle of subsidiarity, representation in national institutions, constitutional guarantees for human rights, the integration of the autonomy status into the Moroccan Constitution, and mechanisms for reintegration and transition.

Presenting the case of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, which is part of Chile, researcher Diego Muñoz described an “unfinished” autonomy process, with various projects debated over four decades. He highlighted the distinct legal and historical contexts separating this insular experience from the Sahara issue, which is addressed within its unique UN framework.

Muñoz posited that the Rapa Nui experience underscores the critical importance of consulting affected populations. By contrast, it illuminates the strengths of the mechanisms embedded in the Moroccan initiative, which combine local representation, population consultation, and institutional guarantees. He summarized the challenge as building “autonomy as a compromise,” rooted in cultural recognition and local participation.

Administrative versus political autonomy

Sémir Al Wardi, a professor of political science at the University of French Polynesia, differentiated between administrative and political autonomy. He noted that French Polynesia primarily operates with administrative autonomy, whereas New Caledonia holds legislative power.

From this perspective, Al Wardi argued that the Moroccan initiative is “more generous” than the French model applied to Polynesia, as it grants legislative authority to the Sahara region. He drew parallels between this approach and certain autonomy models implemented in unitary states like Spain or the United Kingdom.

The academic also stressed the vital role of resources in any autonomy status, contending that a region cannot effectively exercise its competencies without adequate financial means. He concluded that autonomy empowers a region to “affirm its identity” while remaining an integral part of a broader state framework.

Heikki Mattila, a professor at the School for International Training in Geneva, presented the experience of the Åland Islands, an autonomous Swedish-speaking territory of Finland. He recounted that this status emerged from a post-Finnish independence crisis between Finland and Sweden, subsequently formalized by the League of Nations.

This experience, Mattila elaborated, rests on several key guarantees: protection of the Swedish language, restrictions on land acquisition by non-residents, distinct competencies, a specific fiscal regime, local representation, and the archipelago’s neutralization and demilitarization. He also pointed out that the Åland Islands’ autonomy laws enjoy near-constitutional protection, requiring a reinforced procedure involving the region itself for any modifications.

The researcher emphasized the necessity of a clear division of powers, alongside a degree of flexibility to allow for the evolution of the status. He cited the presence of institutional oversight mechanisms, including the review of regional laws and, in cases of jurisdictional disputes, recourse to the Finnish Supreme Court.

Guarantees beyond the text

The final speaker, Dagikhudo Dagiev, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, discussed the case of Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan. He described an autonomy that, while constitutionally recognized, is largely constrained in practice by state centralization, the central government’s direct appointment of regional officials, and a lack of effective exclusive competencies.

This experience, according to Dagiev, illustrates that an autonomy status is insufficient if it remains merely “on paper.” By contrast, it highlights the significance of the guarantees stipulated in the Moroccan initiative, notably its constitutional embedding, fiscal resources, dispute resolution mechanisms, protection against unilateral challenges, and, where appropriate, international support for its implementation.

Comparing this case to the Moroccan initiative, he affirmed that the latter already incorporates several fundamental guarantees, including constitutional integration, democratic governance, referendary approval, and a negotiated implementation process.

In his concluding remarks, Marc Finaud identified several shared lessons: the constitutional entrenchment of autonomy status, the existence of an international agreement, a precise definition of competencies, the availability of dedicated resources, mechanisms for resolving disputes, and protection against any unilateral challenge. These elements, in the Moroccan context, reinforce the credibility of an autonomy designed for longevity while addressing the evolving needs of the populations concerned.