WESTERN SAHARA ISSUE

Nikolić Aleksa (Autor je student četvrte godine Pravnog fakulteta Univerziteta u Beogradu), aleksanikolic.pravni@gmail.com

The paper discusses the issue of the Western Sahara region, and the right of people to self-determination of Western Sahara. It includes an analysis of the occurrence of the resistance movement in the territory, the historical significance of this region, the relationship that the international community has for it as well as the attitude of the neighboring countries. The author attempts to draw attention to the indifference of the international community to address this problem. This paper deals with the analysis of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice regarding the question of whether this territory constituted terra nullius, and what are the legal ties between this territory and other countries in the dispute, as well as Resolution 690 which guaranteed a referendum on this issue under the control of the UN. The author also draws attention to a constant, longstanding violations of basic human rights in the territory. In particular, it highlighted the importance of the great power for (not) solving this problem.

Keywords: Western Sahara - Polisario – Morocco – International community – The right of nations to self-determination