BLANCO SOUTO Yolanda, La cuestión del Sahara Occidental en África: evolución desde las perspectivas constitucional e internacional, Tesis doctoral, tesis bajo la dirección de Carlos Ruiz Miguel, Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, defendida el 24 de noviembre de 2023
The doctoral thesis is divided into two parts: the first on “the process of colonization and decolonization of Africa and Western Sahara” and the second on “the African contribution to the solution of the Western Sahara conflict.” In the first part, it deals with the process of colonization and deco...
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| Médium: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jazyk: | Français |
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2025
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| On-line přístup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Shrnutí: | The doctoral thesis is divided into two parts: the first on “the process of colonization and decolonization of Africa and Western Sahara” and the second on “the African contribution to the solution of the Western Sahara conflict.” In the first part, it deals with the process of colonization and decolonization of Africa with the two fundamental milestones of the process, paying special attention to northwest Africa. The various treaties that establish Morocco’s borders in the North, East and South are especially analyzed. Morocco was the object of multiple colonization that led to the territory being divided into areas with different statuses, so decolonization was also carried out in several stages, but this staged decolonization was carried out on borders that were already established. Although its legal borders are clearly defined in several treaties, upon gaining its independence Morocco attempted to carry out an expansionist program whose first objective was the annexation of Mauritania. The study of the failed attempt to annex Mauritania offers numerous lessons to analyze the second great Moroccan expansionist attempt against Western Sahara. In fact, the annexationist offensive against Western Sahara intensifies when the annexationist offensive in Mauritania could be considered definitively unsuccessful. When Spain abandons Western Sahara and Morocco occupies and recolonizes the Territory, the United Nations General Assembly will go especially to the OAU to outline a doctrine and a solution to the conflict. The doctrine established, first, by the General Assembly and then by the Assembly and the Security Council, will provide various elements, many of which varied as time passed and circumstances changed. The second part examines more specifically the important and often underrated role of African continental organizations against Moroccan expansionism, first to guarantee the existence of Mauritania and then to recognize the Sahrawi Republic. The very birth of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) cannot be understood without paying attention to the diplomatic battle waged by Morocco to annex Mauritania. The OAU, whose evolution is studied in the thesis, would later have a decisive intervention in the preparation of the “Settlement Plan3 which is the only solution approved by the Security Council for the Western Sahara conflict. The dissolution of the OAU and its replacement by the African Union (AU) coincided with the Moroccan offensive to block and oppose the application of the “Settlement Plan” starting in 2000. During that period of blockade, the United Nations only maintained one initiative strong to solve the conflict with James Baker, but this began to decline after the attack against Spain on March 11, 2004. Since then the United Nations has not been particularly active. This period of passivity was only interrupted when the AU activated its institutions in defense of Western Sahara, especially in the period 2012-2017, which coincided with the presidency of the AU Commission by the South African Dlamini Nkosazana-Zuma. The danger for Morocco was such that, contradicting its policy of the previous 30 years, it decided to join the AU to try to boycott from within the efforts of this organization in favor of Western Sahara, an objective that seems to have been achieved. |
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