DR ‹ › Human Rights Watch took nearly four months to react to the latest United Nations Security Council resolution on Western Sahara, which reaffirmed Morocco's autonomy proposal as the main basis for negotiations. In a report released on Wednesday, the organization criticized the resolution, saying it «does not ensure that a new framework to end the long-standing impasse on the issue upholds the right to self-determination for the territory's peoples and is consistent with international law». The report goes further than the Polisario Front's demands, arguing that any settlement should include «Sahrawis' right to reparations for harm against them since Morocco took control of most of the territory». Human Rights Watch also faulted the resolution for only endorsing «Morocco's 2007 autonomy proposal, which does not include independence as an option, provide for the right to reparations, or define the people of Western Sahara who possess the right to self-determination». While the organization says it «takes no position on the issue of independence for Western Sahara», it nevertheless describes Morocco's presence in the territory as an «occupation». The report also claims that a majority of Western Sahara's current population consists of Moroccans who settled in the region, and stresses that international humanitarian law prohibits «an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into an occupied territory, and such transfer constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court». It further alleges that Moroccan authorities systematically obstruct groups advocating for self-determination and suppress expressions of opposition to Moroccan rule.
