NEW YORK (United Nations) 28 October 2026 (SPS) – A High-Level Panel on "Self-Determination, Humanitarian Responsibility, and the Future of the People of Western Sahara" was held on Wednesday at Conference Room 7 of the United Nations Headquarters in New York, bringing together diplomats, international humanitarian organizations, civil society advocates, and Sahrawi representatives.
The event is organized as part of the photo exhibition titled "50 Years, 50 Faces: The Sahrawi Exile – A Lifetime in Resilience" displayed at UN Headquarters from 26 to 30 October 2026, ahead of the scheduled expiry of the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) on 31 October 2026.
Co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions of Algeria, Belize, Namibia, South Africa, Timor-Leste, and Uganda, in partnership with Oxfam International, Frente POLISARIO, the US Campaign for Western Sahara/Artists for Western Sahara, and Tariq Cherif, Co-Founder of Rolling Loud, the 75-minute panel was moderated by American writer and activist Mr. Bill Fletcher Jr.
Participants highlighted that fifty years after the proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Western Sahara remains an unfulfilled decolonization process under international law.
Speakers emphasized that despite decades of UN engagement and the establishment of MINURSO under Security Council Resolution 690 (1991), the Sahrawi people's inalienable right to self-determination, as affirmed in UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV), remains unrealized due to persistent political impasse.
The panel addressed the critical humanitarian situation in the five Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, home to approximately 173,000 refugees facing severe challenges including acute water scarcity, food insecurity, malnutrition, and a sharp decline in international aid funding.
The panel featured key diplomatic and civil society voices, including Dr. Sidi Omar, POLISARIO Representative to the UN, Algeria Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Amar Bendjama, and Deputy Permanent Representative of Angola to the United Nations, Ambassador Mateus Pedro Luemba, who outlined the political and legal imperatives for ending the impasse.
Humanitarian and grassroots perspectives were delivered by Oxfam’s UN Representative, Sahrawi advocate Agaila Abba, and Sahrawi-American entrepreneur Tariq Cherif (Co-Founder of Rolling Loud), who collectively highlighted refugee conditions, women’s resilience, and youth mobilization in support of self-determination.
They called for strengthening humanitarian support, upholding international legality, and upholding the rights of the Sahrawi people to determine their own destiny in freedom and sovereignty. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
Related blogs
