• Western Sahara (the former Spanish Sahara) is located in northwest Africa and covers an area of 266,000 square kilometres. It is bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the east and Mauritania to the southeast. The Territory is rich in phosphate and mineral resources; it is also renowned for the rich fishing waters off its 1,200-kilometre-long Atlantic Ocean coastline.

• Colonisation of Western Sahara began in 1884 when the Territory was declared a Spanish protectorate following the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) that divided Africa among European powers.

• Shortly after Morocco gained its independence from France in March 1956, the ruling monarchy began to orchestrate the expansionist ideology of the so-called “Greater Morocco”, which asserted that all of the then Spanish Sahara, Mauritania, a large part of western Algeria and parts of Senegal and Mali belonged historically to Morocco.

• In 1963, the UN placed Western Sahara on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. Two years later, it began calling on Spain to decolonise the Territory.

• In the early 1970s, the rule of King Hassan II of Morocco faced a growing domestic legitimacy crisis and was challenged by two coup d’état in July 1971 and August 1972.

• On 10 May 1973, the Frente popular para la Liberación de Saguía el-Hamra y de Río de Oro (Frente POLISARIO) was created to lead the Sahrawi people to achieve independence from colonial domination. It was then recognised as the sole and legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people.

• In August 1974, Spain declared that it was prepared to organise a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara in early 1975.

• In response to Spain’s decision, Morocco announced that it would not accept the proposed referendum because it had territorial claims on Western Sahara. Together with Mauritania, Morocco called for arbitration by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

• On 16 October 1975, the ICJ issued its advisory opinion on Western Sahara in which it ruled that there never existed any tie of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or Mauritania.

• Following the release of the ICJ advisory opinion, King Hassan II ordered the so-called “Green March” of 350,000 Moroccans to invade Western Sahara. In response, the UN Security Council deplored the holding of the march and called upon Morocco to withdraw all the marchers from the Sahrawi Territory.

• On 31 October 1975, Morocco began its military invasion of Western Sahara. Subsequently, Mauritanian forces would invade the southern part of the Territory. The invasion marked the beginning of the armed conflict between Moroccan-Mauritanian invading forces and the forces of the Frente POLISARIO.

• On 14 November 1975, a secret agreement was signed in Madrid between Spain, Morocco and Mauritania whereby Spain handed over the administration of the Territory to Morocco and Mauritania. The agreement was illegal because its objective was to deprive a people of their right to self-determination and independence.

• On 27 February 1976, the Sahrawi people proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which is a founding and full member of the African Union and is recognised by over 80 countries.

• The occupation of Western Sahara drove a large part of the Sahrawi population out of the Territory. There are now roughly 150,000 Sahrawis who to live in refugee camps in south-western Algeria. The Sahrawis who remained in the occupied Territory continue to suffer repression at the hands of the Moroccan occupying authorities.

• In order to stop the attacks of the Sahrawi army, King Hassan II of Morocco, with the help of foreign military advisers, ordered the construction of a huge line of defensive walls in Western Sahara. Between August 1980 and April 1987, six walls of different lengths were built. With the construction of the sixth wall, a long line of fortifications of about 2,720 km long was established. Considered the greatest functional military barrier in the world, the wall is protected by bunkers, ditches, trenches, barbed- wire fences, over 7 million mines and defended by more than 160,000 Moroccan soldiers.

• After 13 years of armed conflict, in August 1988, both Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO accepted a UN Settlement Plan, which provided for a free and fair referendum on self-determination in which the Sahrawi people would choose between independence and integration into Morocco. The UN Security Council established the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which was deployed in the Territory to supervise the cease-fire that came into effect on 6 September 1991.

• In January 2000, MINURSO published a preliminary list of eligible voters for the referendum. Realising that any free and democratic referendum would inevitably lead to the independence of Western Sahara, Morocco decided to go back on its earlier commitments to the self-determination referendum that it had officially accepted.

• Following numerous attempts to overcome the stalemate created by Morocco’s obstructionist attitude, on 30 April 2007, the UN Security Council called upon the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco to enter into direct negotiations to achieve a just and lasting solution that will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

• Between June 2007 and March 2012, delegations from both parties held several rounds of formal and informal talks under the UN auspices. The talks have not yielded any tangible results yet because Morocco is still unwilling to accept the self-determination referendum as a peaceful and democratic solution to the conflict.

• With the negotiations relatively paralysed, Morocco continues to commit systematic and widespread violations of the human rights of Sahrawi civilians in the occupied parts of Western Sahara and to exploit illegally the natural resources of the Territory in complicity with foreign entities.

• Morocco also still maintains operative its 2,720 km long military wall, which divides Western Sahara and its people. The 7 million anti-personnel and anti-tank mines buried along the wall continue to take a heavy toll on Sahrawi civilians on both sides of the wall.