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The Baker Plan (formally, Peace Plan for Self-Determination of the People of Western Sahara) is a United Nations initiative to grant self-determination to Western Sahara. It was intended to replace the Settlement Plan of 1991, which was further detailed in the Houston Agreement of 1997.
Western Sahara's administration by Morocco since 1975 is challenged by Polisario guerillas living in exile in neighbouring Algeria. Since 1991, a ceasefire has been in place, accepted by both parties with the understanding that the UN would organize a referendum on independence. The 1991 referendum plan was stalled, however, due to disagreements on voter eligibility. Morocco demanded the inclusion of all people now living in the territory, including all Moroccan settlers. Following the 1975 Green March, the Moroccan state has sponsored settlement schemes enticing thousands of Moroccans to move into the Moroccan-occupied part of Western Sahara (80% of the territory). By 2015, it was estimated that Moroccan settlers made up at least two-thirds of the 500,000 inhabitants. [1]
The Polisario Front insisted on inclusion of only found in the 1974 final Spanish census and their descendants; the 1974 census had been mentioned as the basis of voter lists in the 1991 agreement. Specialized Minurso identification teams eventually found in favor of some 80,000 voters deemed to be indigenous to the territory. That number corresponded quite closely to the Spanish census of 75,000 persons, which caused Morocco to launch appeals against the voter list on behalf of over 100,000 rejected applicants from the Moroccan side. This stalled the process, and by the late 1990s, Morocco had begun declaring the referendum a "dead option."
The first draft of the plan, called Baker I or the Framework Agreement, was circulated by the UN special envoy James Baker in 2000, but never presented formally to the Security Council. Although based on Baker's proposals, it was drafted by a Morocco-sponsored legal team. [2] It offered the people of Western Sahara autonomy within the Moroccan state. Except for defense and foreign policy, all other decisions would be the responsibility of local government. Morocco accepted the plan, but the Polisario rejected it. [3]
The second version (informally known as Baker II) envisioned Saharan self-rule under a Western Sahara Authority for a period of five years, with a referendum on independence to follow. In this referendum, the entire present-day population of Western Sahara would participate, including people who had migrated from or been settled by Morocco post-1975, something which Polisario had so far refused. On the other hand, a provision that the interim local government (the Western Sahara Authority) would be elected only by a restricted voters' list (those identified as original inhabitants of the territory by MINURSO) alienated Morocco. After Morocco had voiced early objections to Baker II, the Polisario front reluctantly accepted the plan as a basis for negotiations. In July 2003, the UN Security Council endorsed the plan, something that it had not done with Baker's first draft, and unanimously called for the parties to implement it. Morocco, however, then rejected the plan, saying that it would no longer agree to any referendum that included independence as an option.
After this, Baker resigned in protest, the second UN envoy to Western Sahara to do so. He indicated that given the irreconcilable positions of the parties and the Security Council's refusal to enforcing a solution over the objections of either party, there no longer appeared to be a feasible way to implement the 1991 Settlement Plan or to reach another compromise solution. While the Polisario, anxious to have a strong mediator with US backing in charge of the UN process, deplored his resignation, Moroccan officials viewed it in a positive light; foreign minister Benaissa publicly called the resignation a result of "the tenacity of Moroccan diplomacy". [4]
Since early 2005, the UN Secretary General has not referred to the plan in his reports, and by now it seems largely dead. No replacement plan exists, however worries persist that the political vacuum will result in renewed fighting. Morocco has proposed autonomy for the territory as a final solution to the conflict.
Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North-western Africa. It has a surface area of 272,000 square kilometres (105,000 sq mi). Approximately 30% of the territory is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. It is the most sparsely populated country in Africa and the second most sparsely populated country in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at 618,600. Nearly 40% of that population lives in Morocco-controlled Laayoune, the largest city of Western Sahara.
The politics of Western Sahara take place in a framework of an area claimed by both the partially recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and the Kingdom of Morocco.
The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara is the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, established in 1991 under United Nations Security Council Resolution 690 as part of the Settlement Plan, which had paved way for a cease-fire in the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front over the contested territory of Western Sahara.
The Houston Agreement was the result of negotiations between the Polisario Front and Morocco on the organization of a referendum, which would constitute an expression of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, possibly leading to full independence or integration within Morocco. The talks were conducted during 1997 in Houston, United States, under the auspices of United Nations representative James Baker, using the framework of the 1991 Settlement Plan. The agreement was supposed to lead to a referendum in 1998, after it had been prevented from taking place in 1992 as originally envisioned.
The Settlement Plan was an agreement between the ethnically Saharawi Polisario Front and Morocco on the organization of a referendum, which would constitute an expression of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, leading either to full independence, or integration with the Kingdom of Morocco. It resulted in a cease-fire which remains effective until 2020, and the establishment of the MINURSO peace force to oversee it and to organize the referendum. The referendum never occurred.
The Free Zone or Liberated Territories is a term used by the Polisario Front government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a partially recognized sovereign state in the western Maghreb, to describe the part of Western Sahara that lies to the east of a 2,200-kilometre (1,400 mi) border wall flanked by a minefield, often referred as the Berm, and to the west and north of the borders with Algeria and Mauritania, respectively. It is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, as opposed to the area to the west of the Berm, which is controlled by Morocco as part of its Southern Provinces. Both states claim the entirety of Western Sahara as their territory.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1495, adopted unanimously on 31 July 2003, after recalling all previous resolutions on the situation in Western Sahara, particularly Resolution 1429 (2002), the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 31 October 2003 and supported the Baker Plan put forth by James Baker III, who was at that time the Special Representative for Western Sahara of the Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as a replacement of the 1991 Settlement Plan. The resolution, adopted after significant changes to the original draft, was welcomed by the Polisario Front, which supported the Baker Plan, but not by Morocco, which resisted it.
The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict originated from an insurgency by the Polisario Front against Spanish colonial forces from 1973 to 1975 and the subsequent Western Sahara War against Morocco between 1975 and 1991. Today the conflict is dominated by unarmed civil campaigns of the Polisario Front and their self-proclaimed SADR state to gain fully recognized independence for Western Sahara.
The politics of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic refers to politics of the Polisario Front's proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a country in North Africa with limited recognition by other states, controlling parts of the Western Sahara region.
The Western Sahara Autonomy Proposal is an initiative proposed by Morocco in 2006 as a possible solution to the Western Sahara conflict. In 2006, the Moroccan Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) proposed a plan for the autonomy of Western Sahara and made visits to a number of countries to explain the proposal. The Spanish approach to regional autonomy has been named as a possible model for Western Saharan autonomy, mentioning specifically the cases of the Canary Islands, the Basque Country, Andalusia, or Catalonia. The plan was presented to the UN Security Council in April 2007 and received the backing of the United States and France. This initiative constituted the main ground for the Moroccan proposal at the Manhasset negotiations.
The Manhasset negotiations were a series of talks that took place in four rounds in 2007–2008 at Manhasset, New York between the Moroccan government and the representatives of the Saharawi liberation movement, the Polisario Front to resolve the Western Sahara conflict. They were considered the first direct negotiations in seven years between the two parties. Also present at the negotiations were the neighboring countries of Algeria and Mauritania.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1017, adopted unanimously on 22 September 1995, after recalling resolutions 621 (1988), 658 (1990), 690 (1991), 725 (1991), 809 (1993), 907 (1994), 973 (1995), 995 (1995) and 1002 (1995), the Council discussed the implementation of the Settlement Plan in Western Sahara and extended the mandate of United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 31 January 1996.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1204, adopted unanimously on 30 October 1998, after reaffirming all previous resolutions on the question of the Western Sahara, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 17 December 1998.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1301, adopted on 31 May 2000, after recalling all previous resolutions on the question of the Western Sahara, in particular resolutions 1108 (1997) and 1292 (2000), the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 31 July 2000.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1394, adopted unanimously on 27 February 2002, after reaffirming all previous resolutions on Western Sahara and its commitment to achieve a lasting solution to the dispute, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 30 April 2002.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1406, adopted unanimously on 30 April 2002, after recalling all previous resolutions on the situation on Western Sahara, particularly Resolution 1394 (2002), the council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 31 July 2002.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1541, adopted unanimously by the Council on 29 April 2004, after recalling all previous resolutions on the situation in Western Sahara, particularly Resolution 1495 (2003), extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 31 October 2004 with a view to reducing its size.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1634, adopted unanimously on 28 October 2005, after recalling all previous resolutions on the situation in Western Sahara, including resolutions 1495 (2003), 1541 (2004) and 1598 (2005), the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 30 April 2006.
The Western Sahara peace process refers to the international efforts to resolve the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict has failed so far to result in permanent peace between Morocco and the Polisario Front. The standing issues of the peace process include Sahrawi refugees, and human rights in Western Sahara.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and the United States do not have diplomatic relations as the United States since 2020 with the signing of the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement as part of the Abraham Accords recognized the region of Western Sahara as part of Morocco and the annexation of Western Sahara making it the first country to do so. Prior to 2020, the informal position of the United States was supporting Morocco's claim to Western Sahara under autonomy for the SADR without formally recognizing Morocco's annexation. The United States has often mediated proposals for both sides to find an amicable solution to the conflict mostly through the United Nations.