7933rd Security Council Meeting: Situation Concerning Western Sahara

Security Council extends mandate of United Nations Mission for Refrendum in Western Sahara, unanimously adopting resolution 2351 (2017), at 7933rd meeting.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 00:48:25
• Production Date: 28 April 2017
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS MISSION FOR THE REFERENDUM IN WESTERN SAHARA - MINURSO
• Subject Topical: AGREEMENTS; MILITARY ACTIVITY; POLITICAL CONDITIONS
• Geographic Subject: WESTERN SAHARA
• MAMS Id: 1877990
• Parent Id: 1877527

Description

The Security Council decided this afternoon to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 30 April 2018.

Unanimously adopting resolution 2351 (2017), the Council called on the parties to the Western Sahara conflict to resume negotiations under the auspices of the Secretary-General without preconditions and in good faith, in order to facilitate a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution.

By other terms of the text, the 15-member Council called on the parties to cooperate fully with the operations of MINURSO, and to take the necessary steps to ensure unhindered movement for United Nations and associated personnel in carrying out their mandate. Reaffirming the need to fully respect military agreements reached with MINURSO on the ceasefire and calls for full adherence to those accords, the Council recognized that the recent crisis in the Guerguerat buffer strip raised fundamental questions about the ceasefire and related agreements.

Emphasizing the importance of the parties’ commitment to continuing the preparations for a fifth round of negotiations, the Council called upon them to demonstrate the political will to work in an atmosphere propitious for dialogue in order to resume negotiations, and to implement the relevant Security Council resolutions.

The Council encouraged the parties to resume cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in order to review and, where possible, expand confidence-building measures. It urged Member States to ensure that the humanitarian needs of refugees were adequately addressed. It also supported an increase in the ratio of medical personnel within the current uniformed authorization, as requested in the Secretary-General’s most recent report to address MINURSO’s severely overstretched medical capacity.

Delivering remarks after the vote were representatives of the United States, Uruguay, Sweden, Senegal, Ethiopia, China, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Bolivia, Japan, Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

The meeting began at 6:15 p.m. and at 7:05 p.m.