| Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية الديمقراطية Al-Jumhūrīyya al-`Arabīyya aṣ-Ṣaḥrāwīyya ad-Dīmuqrāṭīyya | ||||||
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| Motto: حرية ديمقراطية وحدة (Arabic) "Liberty, Democracy, Unity" | ||||||
| Anthem: "Yābaniy Es-Saharā" O Sons of the Sahara listen | ||||||
 Territory claimed by the SADR, viz. Western Sahara. The majority (marked green) is currently administered by Morocco; the remainder (yellow) is named the Free Zone & administered by the SADR. | ||||||
| Capital | El Aaiún[1] (under Moroccan administration) Bir Lehlou (temporary capital) Tindouf Camps (de facto) Tifariti (proposed new provisional capital)[2][3] | |||||
| Official language(s) | Arabic | |||||
| Demonym | Sahrawi | |||||
| Government | Nominal republic1 | |||||
| - | President | Mohamed Abdelaziz | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Abdelkader Taleb Oumar | ||||
| Disputed | with Morocco | |||||
| - | Western Sahara relinquished by Spain | November 14, 1975 | ||||
| - | SADR proclaimed | February 27, 1976 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 266,000 km2 (83rd) 102,703 sq mi | ||||
| - | Water (%) | negligible | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | September 2010 estimate | 502 585 (182nd) | ||||
| - | Density | 1.9/km2 (236th) 4.9/sq mi | ||||
| Currency | Sahrawi Peseta | |||||
| Time zone | UTC (UTC+0) | |||||
| Internet TLD | none3 | |||||
| 1 The SADR government is situated in Tindouf, Algeria. They control the area east of the Moroccan Wall in Western Sahara which they label the Free Zone. Bir Lehlou is within this area. 2 Area of the whole territory of (Western Sahara) claimed by SADR. 3 .eh is reserved. | ||||||
| Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic |
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The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية الديمقراطية) is a partially recognised state that claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. SADR was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on February 27, 1976 in Bir Lehlu, Western Sahara. The SADR government currently controls about 20-25% of the territory it claims.[4] It calls the territories under its control the Liberated Territories or the Free Zone. Morocco controls and administers the rest of the disputed territory and calls these lands its Southern Provinces. The SADR government considers the Moroccan-held territory occupied territory, while Morocco considers the much smaller SADR held territory to be a buffer zone.[citation needed]
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[edit] History
Following the Spanish evacuation of Spanish Sahara, Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania signed the Madrid Accords, leading to both Morocco and Mauritania moving in to annex the territory of Western Sahara. Neither state gained international recognition and war ensued with the independence-seeking Polisario Front, claiming to represent the Sahrawi people. The creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was announced in Bir Lehlou in Western Sahara on February 27, 1976, as the Polisario declared the need for a new entity to fill what they considered a political void left by the departing Spanish colonisers. Bir Lehlou remained in Polisario-held territory under the 1991 cease-fire (see Settlement Plan) and has remained the government in exile's symbolic capital[citation needed] of the exiled republic, while Polisario continues to claim the Moroccan held city of El Aaiún, as the capital of a would-be independent Western Sahara. Day-to-day business is, however, conducted in the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria, which house most of the Sahrawi exile community.
[edit] Government structure
 | This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2011) |
The highest office of the republic is the President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, now Mohammed Abdelaziz, who appoints the Prime Minister of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, now Abdelkader Taleb Oumar. The SADR's government structure consists of a Council of Ministers (a cabinet led by the Prime Minister), a judicial branch (with judges appointed by the President) and the parliamentary Sahrawi National Council (SNC, present speaker is Kathri Aduh). Since its inception in 1976, the various constitutional revisions has transformed the republic from an ad hoc managerial structure into something approaching an actual governing apparatus. From the late 1980s the parliament began to take steps to institute a division of powers and disentangle the republic's structures from those of the Polisario party, although without clear effect to date.
Its various ministries are responsible for a variety of services and functions. The judiciary, complete with trial courts, appeals courts and a supreme court, operates in the same areas. As a government-in-exile, many branches of government do not fully function, and has affected the constitutional roles of the institutions. Institutions parallel to government structures also have arisen within the Polisario Front, which is fused with the SADR's governing apparatus, and with operational competences overlapping between these party and governmental institutions and offices.
The SNC is presently weak in its legislative role, having been instituted as a mainly consultative and consensus-building institution, but it has strengthened its theoretical legislative and controlling powers during later constitutional revisions. Among other things, it has added a ban on the death penalty to the constitution, and brought down the government in 1999 through a vote of no-confidence.
[edit] Legislative branch
| Party | Seats |
|---|---|
| Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro | 101 |
| Total | 101 |
[edit] Area of authority
The SADR acts as a government administration in the Sahrawi refugee camps located in the Tindouf Province of western Algeria. It is headquartered in Camp Rabouni, south of Tindouf, although some official events have taken place on Western Saharan territory in the provisional capital of Bir Lehlou, in Tifariti and other towns in the Liberated Territories. The government of the SADR administers both the Western Sahara territories under its control and the Sahrawi refugee camps on Algerian soil near Tindouf, but only claims sovereignty on the first ones. Several foreign aid agencies, including the UNHCR, and NGO's are continually active in the camps.
[edit] Constitution and characteristics
A new 1999 Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic took a form similar to parliamentary constitutions of many European states, but with some paragraphs suspended until the achievement of "full independence". Among key points, the head of state is constitutionally the Secretary General of the Polisario Front during what is referred to as the "pre-independence phase," with provision in the constitution that on independence, Polisario is supposed to be dismantled or separated completely from the government structure. Provisions are detailed for a transitory phase beginning with independence, in which the present SADR is supposed to act as Western Sahara's government, ending with a constitutional reform and eventual establishment of a state along the lines specified in the constitution.
The broad guidelines laid down for an eventual Western Saharan state in the constitution include eventual multi-party democracy with a market economy. The constitution also defines Sahrawis as a Muslim, African and Arab people,[5] The Arabic language is prescribed as the sole official language of the SADR.[6] The Constitution also declares a commitment to the principles of human rights and to the concept of a Greater Maghreb, as a regional variant of Pan-Arabism.
[edit] International recognition and membership
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is currently recognised as a sovereign representative of Western Sahara by 58 states, mostly African and other governments in the developing world.[citation needed] Twenty-two states have withdrawn their former recognition, and twelve have "frozen" their diplomatic relations with the republic pending the outcome of the UN referendum.[citation needed] Sahrawi embassies exist in fifteen states. On the other hand, Moroccan territorial integrity, apparently meaning including Western Sahara, is explicitly recognized by the Arab League.[7][8]
Although it has no recognition from the United Nations, the republic has been a full member of the African Union (AU, formerly the Organisation 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,[9] over Moroccan objections to SADR participation.[10]
In 2006, the SADR participated in a conference of the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of the Latin American and the Caribbean (COPPAL).[11]
In 2010, the SADR ambassador to Nicaragua participated in the opening conference of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN)[12]
On 27 February 2011, the 35th anniversary of the proclamation of SADR was held in Tifariti, Western Sahara. Delegations, including parliamentarians, ambassadors, NGOs and activists from many countries participated in this event.[13][14]
The SADR is not a member of the Arab League, nor of the Arab Maghreb Union, both of which include Morocco as a full member.
[edit] Proposed Western Sahara Authority
In the most recent peace plan, the UN-endorsed Baker Plan, created by James Baker, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's personal envoy to Western Sahara, the SADR would have been replaced with a five-year transitional Western Sahara Authority (WSA), a non-sovereign autonomous region supervised by Morocco, to be followed by a referendum on independence. However, as Morocco has declined to participate, the plan appears dead.[citation needed]
In April 2007 the government of Morocco suggested that a self-governing entity, through the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), should govern the territory with some degree of autonomy for Western Sahara. The project was presented to the United Nations Security Council in mid-April 2007. A stalemate over the Moroccan proposal led the UN in an April 2007 "Report of the UN Secretary-General" to ask the parties to enter into direct and unconditional negotiations to reach a mutually accepted political solution.[15]
[edit] National holidays
| Date | Name | Original event / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| February 27 | Independence Day | Proclamation of the SADR in Bir Lehlou, 1976 |
| May 10 | Foundation of the Polisario Front | Founded 1973 |
| May 20 | May 20 Revolution | Start of the armed struggle against Spain in 1973 |
| June 5 | Day of the Disappeared | Remembering missing Sahrawis |
| June 9 | Day of the Martyrs | Day on which El-Ouali died in 1976 |
| June 17 | Zemla Intifada | Harakat Tahrir riots in El-Aaiun, 1970 |
| October 12 | Day of National Unity | Celebrating the Ain Ben Tili Conference, 1975 |
[edit] Islamic dates
Dates kept according to the lunar Islamic calendar.
| Date | Name | Observance |
|---|---|---|
| Dhul Hijja 10 | Eid al-Adha | Sacrifice feast |
| Shawwal 1 | Eid al-Fitr | End of Ramadan |
[edit] See also(copy of wikipedia)
- Outline of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
- Foreign relations of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic#States recognising the SADR
- Moroccan Wall
- List of cities in Western Sahara
- Elections in Western Sahara
- Politics of Western Sahara
- Polisario Front
- Legal status of Western Sahara
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