20 January 2021
President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Biden,
We are writing to express our strong objections to President Trump’s decision to recognize Morocco’s illegal annexation of Western Sahara, and to call on you to rescind the declaration as soon as possible upon coming to office.
As you are fully aware, Western Sahara is recognized as a non-self-governing territory by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and a broad consensus of international legal scholars. As a result, the people of that nation have the right of self-determination and to independence should they decide to do so through a free and fair referendum as stipulated in United Nations resolutions. The United States has no right to determine their fate simply by declaring that they are part of another country.
Western Sahara, formally known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, has been recognized by scores of countries and is a full, founding member state of the African Union, the charter of which prohibits unilateral changes in colonial borders. Trump’s proclamation, therefore, has put the United States on record endorsing the takeover of one legally-recognized African state by another. If allowed to stand, it could seriously damage the U.S. reputation on the continent and even encourage other countries to believe they could also get away with territorial expansion.
When Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait in 1990, the international community united in opposition to this flagrant violation of the UN Charter. While there were disagreements as to whether war was the best means to reverse the Iraqi takeover, the United States led the international community in its determination that such aggression must not stand. Trump’s decision sends a very bad signal that the United States now sees such illegal irredentism as legitimate.
You have spoken of the need for the United States to lead by the power of our example. This requires upholding the United Nations Charter and related international legal principles recognizing the right of self-determination and the inadmissibility of expanding territories by force. Furthermore, as former Secretary of State James A. Baker reminded us, “the United States was founded first and foremost on the principle of self-determination.” Thus, reneging on that principle regarding the people of Western Sahara is not only regrettable but immoral and dangerous.
Both Baker and former National Security Advisor John Bolton have already called for the US to rescind its recognition of Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara. Republican Senator James Inhofe and Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy are among the bipartisan supporters of self-determination in Western Sahara. During your tenure as Vice President, the Obama administration sought to introduce human rights monitoring to the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) before succumbing to pressure from Morocco’s allies to drop this initiative. We,
therefore, call on you to rescind US recognition of Morocco’s annexation, to insist upon a human rights mandate for MINURSO, to cancel plans to open a US consulate in Dakhla, Western Sahara, and to support self-determination in Western Sahara.
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Zunes
Professor of Politics
University of San Francisco, USA
Alice Wilson
Senior Lecturer
University of Sussex, UK
Jacob Mundy
Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies
Colgate University, USA
R. Joseph Huddleston
Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations
Seton Hall University, USA
Yahia Zoubir
Professor of International Relations and International Management
KEDGE Business School, France
Vivian Solana
Assistant Professor
Carleton University, Canada
Meriem Naili
PhD Candidate
University of Exeter, UK
Mark Drury
Lecturer in Anthropology
Princeton University, USA
Joanna Allan
Northumbria University, UK
Sébastien Boulay
Assistant Professor in Anthropology
University of Paris France
Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh
Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies
University College London, UK
Juan Soroeta
Professor of International Law
University of the Basque Country, Spain
Isaías Barreñada
Professor of International Relations
Madrid Complutense University, Spain
Ben Hounet Yazid
Senior Research Fellow
French National Center for Scientific Research
Francesco Correale
Historian
University of Tours, France
Moisés Ponce de León
University of Rennes 2, France
Carles Serra
University of Girona, Spain
Souadou Lagdaf
University of Catania, Italy
Eduardo Ruiz Vieytez
Professor in Constitutional Law
University of Deusto, Spain
Maria Lopez Belloso
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Deusto, Spain
Joanne Clarke
University of East Anglia, UK
Claude Calame
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France
Bahia Mahmud Awah
Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
Jaume Guia
University of Girona, Spain
Marc Vicens
University of Girona, Spain
Rita Reis
PhD Candidate
University of Lisbon, Portugal
Concha Moya
Journalist and writer
Julia Gonzalez Ferreras
University of Deusto, Spain
Judit Tavakoli
Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Wolf-Dieter Seiwert
Center for European and Oriental Culture/ZEOK, Germany
John Comaroff
Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African American Studies and of Anthropology
Harvard University, USA
Enrique Bengochea Tirado
New University of Lisbon, Portugal
Raquel Ojeda-García
Senior Lecturer in Political Science
University of Granada, Spain
Irene Fernández-Molina
Senior Lecturer in International Relations
University of Exeter, UK
Manfred O. Hinz
Professor
University of Bremen and Jacobs University, Germany
Àngel Vàzquez Viu
Maja Zwick
Free University Berlin, Germany
Adolfo Campoy-Cubillo
Associate Professor of Spanish
Oakland University, USA
Victoria Veguilla del Moral
Professor of Political Science
Pablo de Olavide University, Spain
G. Michelle Collins-Sibley
Professor of English, Director of Africana Studies
University of Mount Union, USA
Michael Minch
Professor of Philosophy, Peace and Justice Studies
Utah Valley University, USA
Ferran Soler
Catalonia, Spain
Michael Nagler
Professor Emeritus
UC, Berkeley, USA
Barbara Wien
Senior Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service
American University, USA
Randi Irwin
Casual Academic Lecturer
University of Newcastle, Australia
Anna DeMers
Juan Ignacio Robles Picoón
Professor of Anthropology
Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
John D. MacDougall
Professor Emeritus, Regional, Economic and Social Development
University of Massachusetts-Lowell, USA
CC: The Honorable Anthony J. Blinken
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
