Re: How Some US Lawyers are trying to Help The Sestern Sahara against Morocco

Here is the contact

Katlyn Thomas
20th Floor, Suite 23
New York
NY10111-2000
USA

Tel 212 332 7162
Fax 212 332 7162

If you want to mail, go directly to the website

All the best

Aaron



On 3/1/13, Nyangkwe Agien Aaron <nyangkweagien@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dr Tumasang
>
> Connection is very slow from this end.
>
> Visit Attorney Katlyn Thomas website below for the info.
>
> http://www.katlynthomaslaw.com/
>
> All the best
>
> Aaron
>
> On 3/1/13, Tumasang Martin <tumasangm@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Aaron, can we have the contacts of these lawyers to send some details
>> of
>> Southern Cameroons case to them also? Regards Tumasang
>> > Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 14:15:14 +0100
>>> Subject: How Some US Lawyers are trying to Help The Sestern Sahara
>>> against
>>> Morocco
>>> From: nyangkweagien@gmail.com
>>> To: ambasbay@googlegroups.com
>>>
>>> http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/86404
>>>
>>> A lawyer's testimony to the UN
>>>
>>> Comments of Katlyn Thomas before the Special Political and
>>> Decolonization Committee of the United Nations General Assembly,
>>> October 2012
>>> 2013-02-27, Issue 618
>>>
>>>
>>> cc AY 'After examining every available legal argument to support
>>> Morocco's presence in the territory we have come to the conclusion
>>> that Morocco cannot claim a legal right to the territory on the basis
>>> of any historic relationship it had with the territory prior to its
>>> colonization by Spain.'
>>>
>>> Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen members of the Committee:
>>>
>>> My name is Katlyn Thomas, and I am the former Chair of the United
>>> Nations Committee of The Association of the Bar of the City of New
>>> York.
>>>
>>> The Association is an independent non-governmental organization with
>>> more than 23,000 members in over 50 countries. Founded in 1870, the
>>> Association has a long history of dedication to the advancement of
>>> principles of international law and the adoption of policies to
>>> implement the United Nations Charter, notably through its United
>>> Nations Committee.
>>>
>>> For the past two years the United Nations Committee has conducted an
>>> intensive investigation of legal issues involved in the dispute over
>>> Western Sahara. Last year we published a report on issues involving
>>> Morocco's use of the natural resources of the territory pending a
>>> determination of sovereignty under law.
>>>
>>> This past May we published our second report, this one dealing with
>>> the fundamental issue of Morocco's right to claim and occupy the
>>> territory of Western Sahara, and the right of the indigenous
>>> population to self determination under international law.
>>>
>>> After examining every available legal argument to support Morocco's
>>> presence in the territory we have come to the conclusion that Morocco
>>> cannot claim a legal right to the territory on the basis of any
>>> historic relationship it had with the territory prior to its
>>> colonization by Spain. This was clearly established by a decision of
>>> the International Court of Justice in 1975 in a case brought at the
>>> request of Morocco. Morocco's action within weeks of that decision to
>>> avoid the implications of that ruling by sending its army into the
>>> territory against the wishes of its inhabitants arguably violates
>>> Article 2, Paragraph 4 and Chapter VII, as well as Artlcle 3(a) of
>>> General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) to refrain from acts of
>>> aggression. The agreement Morocco reached in 1975 with Spain under
>>> which Spain agreed to withdraw from the territory and permit Morocco
>>> and Mauritania to occupy it does not justify any legal claim to the
>>> territory. Despite its more than 30 years of occupation of Western
>>> Sahara, neither the United Nations, nor the African Union, nor any
>>> individual state has recognized Morocco's claims to the territory as
>>> legitimate. Even the members of the Security Council who have
>>> advocated direct talks between Morocco and the Polisario that have
>>> taken place since 2007, as opposed to the implementation of the
>>> Settlement Plan that would require a referendum, have maintained their
>>> support for the right to self-determination of the people of Western
>>> Sahara.
>>>
>>> On the other hand, the right under well established international
>>> legal principles of the indigenous population of the territory – the
>>> Sahraouis – to exercise self determination in determining the
>>> political future of Western Sahara cannot be seriously disputed, and
>>> has not been diminished under law despite this long period of foreign
>>> occupation. Morocco has attempted to qualify this right by comparing
>>> it to the right of self determination of a population which inhabits a
>>> part of an established state. Under this argument the right to self
>>> determination of the Sahraouis should be considered subordinate to the
>>> right of Morocco to maintain its "territorial integrity." The fallacy
>>> of this argument is easily apparent – Western Sahara is not now and
>>> has never been recognized under international legal principles to be a
>>> territory belonging to Morocco.
>>>
>>> Our Committee concluded that the right to self-determination under
>>> international law requires that the Sahraouis have the opportunity to
>>> freely determine their political status and that this determination
>>> must include the option of independence. Accordingly, the exercise of
>>> self-determination, in whatever form it may take, must include the
>>> possibility that the final status of Western Sahara will be
>>> independence. Turning to the question of how this right can be
>>> exercised, the Committee noted that the following three procedures
>>> would, in principle, be among the options consistent with the
>>> Sahraouis' right to self-determination under international law:
>>>
>>> First, enforcement of the original U.N.-OAU 1991 Settlement Plan.
>>> Under this alternative, the referendum would be conducted by MINURSO
>>> in accordance with the provisions of the Settlement Plan agreed to by
>>> the parties to the conflict, and the list of eligible voters
>>> established by MINURSO, under the supervision of the Security Council
>>> and the African Union, and consistent with internationally recognized
>>> legal norms. We believe that the United Nations would be within its
>>> rights to demand that Morocco adhere to its agreement in 1991 to
>>> permit this referendum to take place, if not under its powers under
>>> Chapter 6 of the United Nations charter, then at least under its
>>> powers under Chapter 7 of the Charter.
>>>
>>> Second, enforcement of a version of the Peace Plan advanced by former
>>> United States Secretary of State James Baker III when he was the
>>> Personal Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General to Western
>>> Sahara, or an alternative plan, which provides for an act of
>>> self-determination with an option for independence, and which ensures
>>> that the electorate will be those entitled to the right to
>>> self-determination under international law. Under this alternative, a
>>> referendum would ultimately be held which includes – among other
>>> options – a ballot option for independence.
>>>
>>> Third, UN-ordered negotiations on a "political solution" with
>>> preconditions, which include (1) the requirement that all options for
>>> self-determination be included, including independence, and (2) a
>>> timetable for such negotiations, after which, if no agreement is
>>> reached, a referendum will be held with all options available. We note
>>> that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan included such a
>>> provision, so there is some recent precedent for such a procedure.
>>>
>>> Each of these three options may require a mandatory order by the
>>> Security Council under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter.
>>> Whether to invoke the powers of Chapter 7 to resolve this dispute is a
>>> political issue and we are mindful of the political problems such a
>>> decision may entail. However, this would be a means – perhaps the only
>>> means – of enforcing the self-determination principles that apply to
>>> this dispute under international law. Thus far, in the face of the
>>> parties' entrenched and irreconcilable positions on sovereignty over
>>> the territory, there has been inconsistency between the principle of
>>> self-determination under international law, which has been repeatedly
>>> confirmed through General Assembly Resolutions on the matter to
>>> include an independence option, and the actions of the Security
>>> Council, in merely asking the parties to proceed with discussions on a
>>> political solution with no preconditions.
>>>
>>> The international community needs to take steps to see that this
>>> dispute is resolved in the near future. The longer it takes to resolve
>>> the sovereignty issue, the more complicated will be the task of
>>> implementing any solution reached. On behalf of the United Nations
>>> Committee of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, I
>>> call upon this Committee to adopt a position with regard to the
>>> settlement of the dispute over Western Sahara that is consistent with
>>> principles of international law.
>>>
>>> EDITOR'S NOTE
>>> The New York City Bar report on the Western Sahara is available here.
>>>
>>> * BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS
>>>
>>> * Please do not take Pambazuka for granted!
>>> --
>>> Aaron Agien Nyangkwe
>>> Journalist-OutCome Mapper
>>> P.O.Box 5213
>>> Douala-Cameroon
>>> Telephone +237 73 42 71 27
>>>
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>>
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>
>
> --
> Aaron Agien Nyangkwe
> Journalist-OutCome Mapper
> P.O.Box 5213
> Douala-Cameroon
> Telephone +237 73 42 71 27
>


--
Aaron Agien Nyangkwe
Journalist-OutCome Mapper
P.O.Box 5213
Douala-Cameroon
Telephone +237 73 42 71 27

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