UN Security Council to Review MINURSO's Mandate

Monika Kalra Varma, of the RFK Center for Human Rights (here in DC) has a post about the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara at the Huffington Post. The UN Security Council will be reviewing its mandate this week.

Every contemporary United Nations peacekeeping mission on the ground today has a mandate to protect human rights, except one, the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). Without direct authorization from the UN Security Council, MINURSO cannot monitor or report on the human rights situation in Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa. As a result, the Sahrawi people continue to suffer from human rights abuses with no recourse or relief.

Why then does MINURSO continue to operate as the only contemporary U.N. peacekeeping mission without a human rights component? With Morocco's rise as an important ally in Western efforts to thwart terrorism, its human rights record and disregard for international rule of law has been conveniently overlooked by permanent members of the Security Council. Furthermore, Morocco has informed the international community that the inclusion of a human rights component in the MINURSO mandate would be tantamount to endorsing the Polisario. Morocco's successful politicization of the situation is not difficult to see. What is confounding is the U.N. Security Council's determination to passively acquiesce to such politics in the face of this true human rights problem - and, especially because MINURSO is the only contemporary Mission in the world where it has chosen to do so.