U.N. Talks over Western Sahara Peacekeeping Missions

Carina Gibson
May 1, 2009
10:36 A.M.

United Nations talks on Thursday about the disputed area of Western Sahara. In this new round of negotiations, some rejected human rights monitors “to be deployed in the mineral-rich territory.” The United Nations have a mission to protect human rights all over the globe, except the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara does not have that under its agenda. In 1975 when Spanish colonizers left the territory, Morocco and Mauritania split Western Sahara. A year later, however, they went to war over it. In 1979, Morocco took control over the region as Mauritania left. Fighting has continued between the Polisario guerrillas and Morocco’s U.S. army. The UN missions placed there have peacekeeping duties, and nothing on their agenda involves human rights. France has been blamed by the Polisario Front because of its close ties with Morocco. Many human rights groups, as well as various countries around the world, are enraged at this lack of human rights regulations. The new resolution adopted extends the placement of 500 U.N. troops, but no conclusion on human rights regulations have been made.

A stronger push should be made in order to secure the rights of the people living in this disputed region. Tensions between countries and opposing governments are often reasons for the inadequate care of a group of people in a certain area, but this should not be the case. Just as the U.N. forces are there on the peacekeeping mission, they can also (and should) be there to protect the rights of the people no matter whose government they fall under.

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