The SADR was proclaimed by thePolisario Front on 27 February 1976, inBir Lehlou, Western Sahara. The SADR government calls the territories under its control theLiberated Territories or theFree Zone.Morocco occupies the rest of the disputed territory, and calls these lands itsSouthern Provinces. The claimedcapital city of the SADR isLaayoune (the capital of the territory of Western Sahara). Since the SADR does not control Laayoune, it has established atemporary capital inTifariti, although most of the day-to-day administration happens inRabuni, one of theSahrawi refugee camps located inTindouf,Algeria.
The SADR maintains diplomatic relations with 45United Nations states, and is a full member of theAfrican Union. With a population of about half a million, it is the mostsparsely populated in Africa, and the second-most sparsely populated in the world.[16]
Following the evacuation of the Spaniards, due to the MoroccanGreen March,Spain,Morocco, andMauritania signed theMadrid Accords on 14 November 1975, six days beforeFrancisco Franco died. Morocco and Mauritania responded byannexing the territory of Western Sahara. On 26 February 1976, Spain informed theUnited Nations (UN) that as of that date it had terminated its presence in Western Sahara and relinquished its responsibilities, which left the region devoid of any Administering Power.[17] Neither Morocco nor Mauritania gained international recognition, and war ensued with the independence-seekingPolisario Front. The UN considers the Polisario Front to be the legitimate representative of theSahrawi people, and maintains that the people of Western Sahara have a right to "self-determination and independence".[18]
The creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was proclaimed on 27 February 1976, as thePolisario declared the need for a new entity to fill what they considered a political void left by the departing Spanish colonial administration. While the claimed capital is the former Western Sahara capitalLaayoune (which is in Moroccan-occupied territory), the proclamation was made in thegovernment-in-exile's provisional capital,Bir Lehlou, which remained in Polisario-held territory under the 1991ceasefire (seeSettlement Plan). On 27 February 2008, the provisional capital was formally moved toTifariti.[19][20] Day-to-day business, however, is conducted in theSahrawi refugee camps inTindouf Province, Algeria, which house most of the Sahrawi exile community.
A 1999 Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic took a form similar to theparliamentary constitutions of many European states, but with some paragraphs suspended until the achievement of "full independence". Among key points, thehead 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.[citation needed]
Since August 1982, the highest office of the republic has been thePresident of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a post held by the secretary-general of the Polisario Front, presentlyBrahim Ghali,[23] who appoints thePrime Minister, presentlyBouchraya Hammoudi Bayoun. 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 parliamentarySahrawi National Council (SNC; the presentspeaker isHamma Salama). Since its inception in 1976, the variousconstitutional revisions have transformed the republic from anad hoc managerial structure into something approaching a governing apparatus. From the late 1980s the parliament began to take steps to institute adivision of powers and to disentangle the republic's structures from those of the Polisario Front, although without clear effect to date.[citation needed]
Its various ministries are responsible for a variety of services and functions. Thejudiciary, complete with trial courts, appeals courts and asupreme court, operates in the same areas. As agovernment-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. A 2012 report mentioned the existence of the Sahrawi Bar Association.[24] In 2016, the bar association (going by the name Union of Sahrawi Lawyers) issued a report calling for the implementation of political and civil rights.[25] Unfortunately, there is no clear indication as to how certain demographic groups, such as women, have fared in the legal field.[citation needed]
The SNC is weak in its legislative role, having been instituted as a mainly consultative andconsensus-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 thedeath penalty to the constitution, and brought down the government in 1999 through avote of no-confidence.[citation needed]
TheSahrawi People's Liberation Army is theArmy of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and previously served as the armed wing of the Polisario Front prior to the foundation of the state.
The official currency of the SADR is theSahrawi peseta, though, in practice, theAlgerian dinar andMauritanian ouguiya are the main currencies used within the controlled territories. TheMoroccan dirham is also accepted, though it is mainly only used in the Moroccan-occupied territories.
Hundreds of thousands ofMoroccan settlers have migrated into occupied Western Sahara since theGreen March in 1975. As of 2015[update], it is estimated that Moroccan settlers account for at least two thirds of Western Sahara's entire population of 500,000 people.[26] Under international law, Morocco's settlement schemes in the occupied territory constitute a direct violation ofArticle 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.[27]
The predominant religion practiced by Sahrawis is theMaliki school ofSunni Islam, which is constitutionally recognized as the official religion of the SADR and a source of law. Virtually all Sahrawis identify as Muslim according to theCIA World Factbook, which makes the country one of the most religiously homogeneous nations in the world.
The SADR acted as a government administration in theSahrawi refugee camps located in theTindouf Province of western Algeria. It is headquartered in Camp Rabouni, south ofTindouf, although some official events have taken place intowns in theFree Zone, including the provisional capitals, firstBir Lehlou until 2008, then Tifariti. The government of the SADR claims sovereignty over all of the Western Sahara territory, but has control only within the Free Zone. Several foreignaid agencies, including theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees andnon-governmental organizations, are continually active in the camps.
As of September 2022, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic has been recognized by 85 states, at one time or another. Of these, 39 have "frozen" or "withdrawn" recognition for a number of reasons. A total of 29 UN states maintain an embassy from the SADR, with Vietnam being the only nation not hosting an embassy but only sending their own mission.[33]Sahrawi embassies exist in 18 states. Six UN states have other diplomatic relations, while a further nine UN nations and South Ossetia[34] also recognize the state either by previous regimes or through international agreements in the past, but do not have any active relations at the moment (seeforeign relations of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic for more details).
Paraguay,[35] Australia,[36] Brazil,[37][38][39][40] and Sweden[41] have all internally voted to recognize the SADR, but none have yet ratified it.
Although it is not recognized by the UN, the SADR has held full membership of theAfrican Union (AU, formerly theOrganisation of African Unity, OAU) since 1982. Morocco withdrew from the OAU in protest during 1984, and from the time ofSouth Africa's admittance to the OAU in 1994 was the only African UN member not also a member of the AU, until it was readmitted on 30 January 2017.[42] The SADR participates as a guest in meetings of theNon-Aligned Movement[43][44] and theNew Asian–African Strategic Partnership,[45][46] over Moroccan objections to SADR participation.[47]
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.[51][52]
The SADR is not a member of theArab League, nor of theArab Maghreb Union, both of which include Morocco as a full member.
Proposed Western Sahara Authority
Under theBaker Plan created byJames Baker, former UN Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan's personal envoy to Western Sahara, the SADR would have been replaced with a five-year transitionalWestern Sahara Authority (WSA), a non-sovereignautonomous region supervised by Morocco, to be followed by a referendum on independence. It was endorsed by the UN in 2003. As Morocco has declined to participate, however, the plan appears dead.[citation needed]
In April 2007, the government of Morocco suggested that a self-governing entity, through theRoyal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), should govern the territory with some degree of autonomy for Western Sahara. The project was presented to theUN 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.[53]
^János Besenyő; R. Joseph Huddleston; Yahia H. Zoubir (2022).Conflict and Peace in Western Sahara The Role of the UN's Peacekeeping Mission (MINURSO). Taylor & Francis. p. 51.ISBN978-10-0080733-2.
^Dawn Chatty (2010).Deterritorialized Youth Sahrawi and Afghan Refugees at the Margins of the Middle East. Berghahn Books. p. 114.ISBN978-1-84545-653-5.
^Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (2015).South-South Educational Migration, Humanitarianism and Development Views from the Caribbean, North Africa and the Middle East. Routledge. p. 48.ISBN978-1-135-07667-2.
^"Constitution of the SADR".arso.org (in Spanish). Association de soutien à un référendum libre et régulier au Sahara Occidental. 4 September 1999. Retrieved13 May 2025.
^"Vivir sin nubes" [Living without clouds].El País (in Spanish). 18 December 2010.En los alrededores de Tifariti sobreviven unas 40.000 personas, una población dispersa y nómada [...] según cifras oficiales. [In the vicinity of Tifariti, about 40,000 people survive, a dispersed and nomadic population [...] according to official figures.]
^"Los campamentos de refugiados saharauis" [The Sahrawi refugee camps] (in Spanish). Una mirada al Sáhara Occidental. 26 December 2019.Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved21 October 2023.La divisa local es el dinar argelino, aunque se puede pagar casi todo en euros. La moneda mínima para hacer compras en los campamentos es el billete de 10€. [The local currency is the Algerian dinar, although you can pay almost everything in euros. The minimum currency to make purchases in the camps is the €10 bill.]
^"South Africa". ARSO – Association de soutien à un référendum libre et régulier au Sahara Occidental. 9 September 2006.Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved27 September 2012.
1Entirely claimed by both Morocco and theSADR.2Spanish exclaves claimed by Morocco.3Portuguese archipelago claimed by Spain.4Disputed between Egypt and the Sudan.5Unclaimed territory located between Egypt and the Sudan.6Disputed between South Sudan and the Sudan.7Part of Chad, formerly claimed by Libya.8Disputed between Morocco and Spain
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