| Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic |
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Other countries · Atlas |
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is the government in exile claiming sovereignty of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. The Polisario Front, the national liberation movement that administers the SADR, currently controls the area that it calls the Liberated territories, a strip of Western Sahara territory east of the Moroccan Wall. It conducts diplomatic relations with a number of other states from its headquarters at the Sahrawi refugee camps at Tindouf in Algeria. In 1979, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 34/37 recognised the right of the Western Sahara people to self-determination and independence, recognising also the Polisario Front as the representative of the Western Sahara people.
The SADR is recognised by some 50 states. Several states that do not recognise the Sahrawi Republic, however, recognize the Polisario Front as the legitimate representative of the population of the Western Sahara, but not its government-in-exile as a state.
The republic has been a full member of the African Union (AU), formerly the Organization of African Unity (OAU), since 1984. Morocco withdrew from the OAU in protest and remains the only African nation not within the AU since South Africa's admittance in 1994. The SADR is also a member of the Asian-African Strategic Partnership, formed at the 2005 Asian-African Conference[1], over Moroccan objections to SADR participation.[2] On the other hand, Moroccan "territorial integrity" is favoured by the Arab League.[3][4]
Besides Mexico, Algeria, Iran, Venezuela, Vietnam, Nigeria and South Africa, India was the major middle power to have ever recognised SADR, when it allowed the Sahrawi Republic to open a consulate in New Delhi, in 1985. However, India suspended its relations in 2000.
As with any fluid political situation, diplomatic recognitions of either party's rights are subject to frequent and sometimes unannounced change.
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