During a significant international seminar held in New York, Ambassador Omar Hilale, Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the UN, joined a distinguished panel of experts to thoroughly examine various models of territorial autonomy. Their discussions drew valuable comparisons from the experiences of Rapa Nui, French Polynesia, the Åland Islands, and Gorno-Badakhshan, all considered within the crucial framework of Security Council Resolution 2797.
Morocco’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York hosted an international seminar on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, focusing on the crucial guarantees for implementing territorial autonomy agreements. The event brought together academics and experts to share insights from various autonomy experiences worldwide.
In his opening remarks, Ambassador Omar Hilale underscored the exceptional timing of this gathering, noting the significant diplomatic strides made regarding the Sahara issue. He specifically highlighted the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2797 last October.
Ambassador Hilale emphasized that this resolution marked a “historic turning point,” unequivocally endorsing the Moroccan autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty as “the sole foundation for a negotiated and mutually acceptable political resolution.”
He further pointed out that this event occurred just four months before the Security Council’s review of a new resolution on the Sahara. This period is characterized by a favorable international momentum, with more than 130 UN member states, including three permanent members of the Security Council—the United States, France, and the United Kingdom—supporting the autonomy plan.
The diplomat connected this diplomatic surge to the ongoing development in the Southern Provinces. He cited advancements in infrastructure, renewable energy projects, higher education, healthcare, and substantial investments, including a large data center project in Dakhla and a future deep-water port on the Atlantic coast. For Hilale, these tangible realities demonstrate that the autonomy plan is “not merely a political slogan, but a concrete governance project,” fortified by constitutional, institutional, and democratic safeguards.
He explained that this year’s central theme revolved around a fundamental principle: “in a negotiated autonomy, there is no inherent value if that autonomy cannot be guaranteed.” The Moroccan initiative, he reiterated, envisions the populations of the Sahara managing their own affairs through legislative, executive, and judicial bodies endowed with distinct competencies.
A Comparative Academic Framework for Sahara Autonomy
Marc Finaud, the seminar’s moderator and a senior advisor and research fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, recalled that Morocco’s initiative was presented to the Security Council on April 11, 2007. He stressed that this academic discussion was not intended to replace UN-led negotiations but rather to inform them through international comparisons.
He detailed key provisions of the Moroccan initiative, including the participation of the Sahara’s populations, a consultative referendum, the principle of subsidiarity, representation in national institutions, constitutional guarantees for human rights, the integration of the autonomy statute into the Moroccan Constitution, and mechanisms for reintegration and transition.
Presenting the case of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, which is linked to Chile, researcher Diego Muñoz described an “unfinished” autonomy process, characterized by various projects debated over four decades. He highlighted the distinct legal and historical contexts differentiating this island experience from the Sahara dossier, which is addressed within a unique UN framework.
Muñoz argued that the Rapa Nui experience underscores the vital importance of consulting the affected populations. This, by contrast, illuminates the strengths of the mechanisms outlined in the Moroccan initiative, which combine local representation, population consultation, and institutional guarantees. He summarized the challenge as building “autonomy as a compromise,” rooted in cultural recognition and local participation.
Administrative Versus Political Autonomy Models
Sémir Al Wardi, a professor of political science at the University of French Polynesia, distinguished between administrative and political autonomy. He noted that French Polynesia primarily enjoys administrative autonomy, while New Caledonia possesses legislative powers.
From this perspective, Al Wardi asserted that the Moroccan initiative is “more generous” than the French model applied to Polynesia, as it grants legislative authority to the Sahara region. He drew parallels between this approach and certain autonomy models implemented in unitary states like Spain or the United Kingdom.
The academic also emphasized the critical role of resources in any autonomy status, arguing that a region cannot effectively exercise its competencies without adequate financial means. He concluded that autonomy enables a region to “assert its identity” while remaining an integral part of a broader state entity.
Heikki Mattila, a professor at the School for International Training in Geneva, presented the experience of the Åland Islands, a Swedish-speaking autonomous territory within Finland. He explained that this status emerged from a post-Finnish independence crisis between Finland and Sweden, subsequently formalized under the League of Nations.
This experience, he elaborated, is built upon several guarantees: protection of the Swedish language, restrictions on land acquisition by non-residents, distinct competencies, a specific fiscal regime, local representation, and the neutralization and demilitarization of the archipelago. Mattila also highlighted that the Åland Islands’ autonomy laws benefit from quasi-constitutional protection and can only be amended through a reinforced procedure involving the region itself.
The researcher stressed the necessity of a clear division of powers, coupled with a degree of flexibility to allow for the evolution of the status. He cited the presence of institutional oversight mechanisms, including the review of regional laws and, in cases of jurisdictional doubt, recourse to the Finnish Supreme Court.
Ensuring Autonomy: Beyond the Text
The final speaker, Dagikhudo Dagiev, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, discussed the case of Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan. He described an autonomy that is constitutionally recognized but largely constrained in practice by the state’s centralization, the direct appointment of regional officials by the central government, and the absence of effective exclusive competencies.
This experience, according to Dagiev, demonstrates that an autonomy status is insufficient if it remains merely “on paper.” It also serves, by contrast, to highlight the significance of the guarantees embedded in the Moroccan initiative, particularly its constitutional anchoring, fiscal resources, dispute resolution mechanisms, protection against unilateral challenges, and, where appropriate, international support for its implementation.
Comparing this case to the Moroccan initiative, he affirmed that the latter already incorporates several fundamental guarantees, including constitutional integration, democratic governance, referendary approval, and a negotiated implementation process.
In conclusion, Marc Finaud identified several shared lessons: the constitutional embedding of the status, the existence of an international agreement, a precise definition of competencies, the availability of independent resources, mechanisms for dispute resolution, and protection against any unilateral challenge. These elements, particularly in the Moroccan context, reinforce the credibility of an autonomy designed to endure while adapting to the evolving needs of the populations concerned.
