This year marks fifty years since the beginning of Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara in 1975. A prolonged and unresolved situation that is in clear violation of international law.

For half a century, the Saharawi people have endured displacement, repression, and political limbo, while the international community has largely failed to ensure consistent, independent human rights monitoring in the territory. Western Sahara remains Africa’s last colony. Also the last listed African Non-Self-Governing Territory according to the United Nations.

Following Spain’s withdrawal in 1975, Morocco asserted control over much of the territory, prompting armed conflict with the Polisario Front and forcing tens of thousands of Saharawi’s into refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria: where many remain to this day. Despite a 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire and the establishment of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), the promised referendum on self-determination has never taken place.

Critically, MINURSO remains one of the only modern UN peacekeeping missions without a mandate to monitor and report on human rights. This absence is not administrative oversight; it is political failure. In a territory where credible reports from international organizations and human rights defenders point to restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, and association, particularly against Saharawi activists advocating self-determination, the lack of independent, sustained monitoring creates a vacuum of accountability.

Human rights monitoring in conflict areas is not a luxury. It is a safeguard. It deters abuses, documents violations, and provides victims with visibility and recourse. In Western Sahara, the absence of a formal UN human rights mechanism has left civil society actors vulnerable and international engagement inconsistent. Access for journalists and observers has frequently been restricted, and local activists report surveillance, intimidation, and reprisals.

The international community bears responsibility here. International humanitarian law and the right to self-determination are not selective principles to be applied based on geopolitical convenience.

Western Sahara’s status is clear under international law: it is a territory whose people have yet to exercise their right to determine their political future. Fifty years of occupation without a referendum is not a frozen conflict; it is a sustained denial of that right.

Monitoring mechanisms must be strengthened. MINURSO’s mandate should include human rights oversight. Independent observers must be granted unfettered access. The protection of Saharawi human rights defenders must become a diplomatic priority rather than an afterthought.

Silence enables impunity. The anniversary of fifty years of occupation should not pass as a symbolic marker alone. It must serve as a call to action, for accountability, for credible monitoring, and for the long-overdue fulfilment of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination. Human rights are universal, or they are nothing at all.

* CATHERINE CONSTANTINIDES, is a South African thought leader, environmentalist focused on climate change, food and water security and waste management, a social entrepreneur, social justice activist and human rights defender and beauty pageant titleholder.
@ChangeAgentSA