Madrid Accords
Encyclopedia
The Madrid Accords, also called Madrid Agreement or Madrid Pact, was a treaty
Treaty
A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention or exchange of letters, among other terms...

 between Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

, and Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

 to end the Spanish presence in the territory of Spanish Sahara
Spanish Sahara
Spanish Sahara was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was ruled as a territory by Spain between 1884 and 1975...

, which was until the Madrid Accords' inception a Spanish province
Provinces of Spain
Spain and its autonomous communities are divided into fifty provinces .In other languages of Spain:*Catalan/Valencian , sing. província.*Galician , sing. provincia.*Basque |Galicia]] — are not also the capitals of provinces...

 and former colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

. It was signed in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 on November 14, 1975, although it was never published on the Boletin Oficial del Estado
Boletín Oficial del Estado
The Boletín Oficial del Estado , Spanish for Official Bulletin of the State, is the official gazette of the Government of Spain. It publishes the laws of the Cortes Generales and the dispositions of the Autonomous Communities...

. This agreement violated the Law on decolonization of Sahara, ratified by the Spanish Parliament (Cortes
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate . The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution...

) on November 18.
In cause of the Madrid agreement, the territory would then be divided between Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 and Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

.

Background

The province's future had been in dispute for several years, with both Morocco and Mauritania demanding its full annexation
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...

 to their territory and Spain attempting to introduce either a regime of internal autonomy
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...

 or a Sahrawi pro-Spanish
Sahrawi National Union Party
Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui was a short-lived political party set up by Spain to rally support in its rebellious Spanish Sahara colony .- Creation of PUNS:...

 independent
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

 state. Additionally, an independent group of indigenous
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 Sahrawis called the Polisario Front
Polisario Front
The POLISARIO, Polisario Front, or Frente Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro is a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement working for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco...

 sought independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

 through guerilla warfare. The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 had since 1963 regarded the area as a colony, and demanded self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...

 for it in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 1514.

Motivations of the parties

The Madrid Accords followed on the heels of the Green March
Green March
The Green March was a strategic mass demonstration in November 1975, coordinated by the Moroccan government, to force Spain to hand over the disputed, autonomous semi-metropolitan Spanish Province of Sahara to Morocco.-Background:...

, a 350,000 strong Moroccan demonstration called by King Hassan II, intended to put pressure on Spanish authorities.

Rabat had been claiming the territory as historically Moroccan since its accession to independence in 1956. Immediately after Morocco's independence, the Moroccan Liberation Army's southern branch, the Saharan Liberation Army, had battled Spanish troops in Sidi Ifni
Sidi Ifni
Sidi Ifni is a city located in southwest Morocco, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 20,000 people. The economic base of the city is fishing. It belongs to the Sous-Massa-Draa economic region and to the Sidi Ifni province. Its inhabitants are mainly Chleuhs from the Ait...

, Saguia el-Hamra
Saguia el-Hamra
Saguia el-Hamra, in Arabic الساقية الحمراء, al-Saqiyah al-Hamra'a , is, with Río de Oro, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969. Its name comes from a waterway that goes through the capital....

 and Rio de Oro
Río de Oro
Río de Oro , is, with Saguia el-Hamra, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969; it was originally taken as a Spanish colonial possession in the late 19th century...

, and managed to free most of the territory. Madrid later regained full control in 1958 with French help. Moroccan demands for the territory continued in the 1960s and increased in intensity in the early 1970s as it became apparent that colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

 was expiring.

Thompson and Adloff argue (e.g. p. 132-134, 164-167) that the Green March, as well as increasingly heated rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

al exchanges between Madrid and Rabat
Rabat
Rabat , is the capital and third largest city of the Kingdom of Morocco with a population of approximately 650,000...

 had convinced Spain that Morocco was willing to enter into war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

 over the territory; a CIA memorandum to Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...

 had stated as much in early October 1975.http://mondediplo.com/2006/01/12asahara With Spanish leader Francisco Franco dying (he had entered into a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...

 and died on November 20), the government was anxious to avoid conflict and decided to split the territory in order to preserve maximum possible influence and economic benefit.

President Mokhtar Ould Daddah had claimed the territory as part of "Greater Mauritania
Greater Mauritania
"Greater Mauritania" is a term for the Mauritanian irredentist claim to Western Sahara, and possibly other Moorish or Sahrawi-populated areas of the western Sahara desert.-Background:...

" even before independence (Ould Ahmed Salem, p. 498). Some argue that the intent of Mauritania's claims was to keep Morocco's border with Mauritania farther away. However, Rabat claimed for a Greater Morocco
Greater Morocco
Greater Morocco is a label historically used by some Moroccan anti-colonial political leaders protesting against Spanish and French rule, to refer to wider territories historically associated with the Moroccan Sultan...

 Spanish Sahara and Mauritania were parts of Morocco until 1969, when the latter claim regarding Mauritania was dropped.http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+mr0029) (Thompson & Adloff, p. 55-57, 145-147).

Content and importance

Thompson and Adloff writes,
"According to [the treaty's] publicised terms, Spain agreed to decolonise
Decolonization
Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...

 the Sahara and leave the area before 28 February 1976. In the interim, the territory would be administered by the Spanish governor general, assisted by two Moroccan and Mauritanian deputy governors, who would respect Sahraoui public opinion as expressed through the yemaa. (...) As to the Bu Craa
(a phosphate
Phosphate
A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...

 mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

) deposits, Spain would retain 35 per cent of the shares in the Fosbucraa company, and a portion of the 65 per cent that would go to Morocco would presumably be allotted to Mauritania. Reportedly there were unpublicised agreements among the three signatories that gave satisfaction to Spain as regards its fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 rights and included a postponement of further Moroccan demands for the
presidios
Plazas de soberanía
The plazas de soberanía or sovereign territories, referred to in English as Spanish North Africa or simply Spanish Africa, are the current Spanish territories in continental North Africa bordering Morocco, except the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.After the Reconquista, forces of the...

, as well as compensation for repatriated Spanish and Canary Island civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...

s.
" (p. 175)


The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 study of Mauritania (1990) states that,
"In early 1975, both Morocco and Mauritania agreed to abide by the decision
International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on Western Sahara
One of the main functions of the International Court of Justice is to provide Advisory Opinions - non-binding legal interpretations admitted by United Nations organs. In the summer of 1975, the court considered two questions regarding the disputed territory of Western Sahara...

 of the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...

 on the status of the Spanish Sahara, but when the court ruled in October 1975 that neither country was entitled to claim sovereignty over the territory, both governments chose to ignore the decision. In November 1975, they concluded the Madrid Agreements with Spain under which Morocco acquired the northern two-thirds
Southern Provinces
The Southern Provinces or Moroccan Sahara are the terms used by Morocco for Western Sahara, in reference to the part of Western Sahara that lies to the west of the Moroccan Berm...

 of the territory, while Mauritania acquired the southern third. The agreement also included the proviso that Spain would retain shares in the Bu Craa mining enterprise. Mauritania acquiesced to the agreements under the assumption, probably correct, that Morocco, with its superior military power, would otherwise have absorbed the entire territory."http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+mr0030)http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?cstdy:1:./temp/~frd_XACW::

Results

The agreement was bitterly opposed by Algeria and the Polisario Front, which remained committed to independence. Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

 dispatched a high-level delegation to Madrid in order to pressure Spain not to sign the Accords and started supporting the Polisario Front militarily and diplomatically by early 1975. Algeria officially viewed its opposition as a way to uphold the UN charter and combat colonialism, although many observers believed that Algeria's actions were more to counter Morocco's influence and to gain access to the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

. A long-standing rivalry
Sand War
The Sand War or Sands War occurred along the Algerian-Moroccan border in October 1963, and was a Moroccan attempt to claim the Tindouf and the Béchar areas that France had annexed to French Algeria a few decades earlier.- Background :...

 between the two countries contributed to the tense relations.

The Boumédiène government consequently broke with Morocco and started supplying the Polisario guerrillas with weapons and refuge
Tindouf Province
Tindouf, also written Tinduf, is the westernmost province of Algeria, having a population of 58,193 as of the 2008 census. Despite the barren landscape, Tindouf is a resource-rich province, with important quantities of iron ore located in the Gara Djebilet area close to the border with Mali...

 and condemned the Accords internationally. Algeria expelled some 45,000 Moroccan citizens then living in Algeria., and began radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 broadcasts in support of both the Polisario and - more briefly - a separatist group in the Canary Islands
Canary Islands Independence Movement
The Canary Islands Independence Movement , also known as the Movement for the Independence and Self-determination of the Canaries Archipelago , is a defunct independentist organization that had a radio station in Algiers and resorted to violence in attempts to...

, the latter presumably in an attempt to punish Spain. (Thompson & Adloff, p. 151, 176.)

As Morocco and Mauritania moved in to assert their claims, armed clashes erupted between the two countries troops and Polisario. Polisario and Algeria both deemed the advance of Morocco and Mauritania as a foreign invasion, while Morocco and Mauritania saw the fight against Polisario as a fight against a separatist group. In support of Polisario, Algeria sent troops deep into the territory, but they eventually retreated after the Amgala
Amgala
Amgala is an oasis in Western Sahara. It is situated between Tifariti, Smara and Meharrize, close to the east of the Moroccan Wall, in the POLISARIO-held part of Western Sahara.Its population was estimated in 2,000 inhabitants in 1975....

 battle in 1976.

The clashes turned into a 17-year long war, during which Mauritania was forced to retreat, abandoning all claims to the region, in 1979. As an effect of the conflict, a part of the territory's population became refugees. It was finally ended with a ceasefire
Ceasefire
A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...

 in 1991.

Today, the status of the territory, now called Western Sahara
Western Sahara
Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly...

, remains in dispute.

International status of the Accords

The United Nations considers Western Sahara to remain a Non-Sovereign Territory, awaiting formal decolonization
Decolonization
Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...

. It recognizes that Morocco presently administers much of it de facto, but neither the General Assembly nor any other UN body has ever recognized this as constituting sovereignty.

In a 2002 letter of the General Secretary for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel of the United Nations, Hans Corell
Hans Corell
Hans Axel Valdemar Corell is a Swedish lawyer and diplomat. Between March 1994 and March 2004 he was Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations...

, in which he gave an opinion on the legality of actions taken by Moroccan authorities in signing contracts for the exploration of mineral resources in Western Sahara, he stated:
"On 14 November 1975, a Declaration of Principles on Western Sahara was concluded in Madrid between Spain, Morocco and Mauritania (“the Madrid Agreement”), whereby the powers and responsibilities of Spain, as the administering Power of the Territory, were transferred to a temporary tripartite administration. The Madrid Agreement did not transfer sovereignty over the Territory, nor did it confer upon any of the signatories the status of an administering Power, a status which Spain alone could not have unilaterally transferred. The transfer of administrative authority over the Territory to Morocco and Mauritania in 1975 did not affect the international status of Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing Territory"

"On 26 February 1976, Spain informed the Secretary-General that as of that date it had terminated its presence in Western Sahara and relinquished its responsibilities over the Territory, thus leaving it in fact under the administration of both Morocco and Mauritania in their respective controlled areas. Following the withdrawal of Mauritania from the Territory in 1979, upon the conclusion of the Mauritano-Sahraoui agreement of 19 August 1979 (S/13503, annex I), Morocco has administered the Territory of Western Sahara alone. Morocco, however, is not listed as the administering Power of the Territory in the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, and has, therefore, not transmitted information on the Territory in accordance with Article 73 e of the Charter of the United Nations"


Morocco continues to claim Western Sahara as an integral part of its territory, by virtue of the Madrid Accords inter alia. The Polisario Front
Polisario Front
The POLISARIO, Polisario Front, or Frente Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro is a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement working for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco...

 declared in 1976 an Algeria-based government-in-exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic 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 controls about...

 (SADR), which denies that the Madrid Accords held any validity and claims the entire area whereas actually controlling only small uninhabitable parts of it. The SADR
Sadr
Sadr may refer to:*Gamma Cygni, a star.*Sadr City, a neighbourhood in northeastern Baghdad.*Sadr, a family name originating in Lebanon.*Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic , the government-in-exile of the Polisario Front....

 is also unrecognized by the UN, but has been admitted as Western Sahara's representative to the African Union
African Union
The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...

 (AU). Mauritania has pulled out from the conflict entirely since 1979.

Text of the Madrid Accords

The following is the published text of the Madrid Accords:http://web.archive.org/web/20080416100241/http://www.wsahara.net/maccords.html
On November 14, 1975, the delegations lawfully representing the Governments of Spain, Morocco and Mauritania, meeting in Madrid, stated that they had agreed in order on the following principles:

  • 1. Spain confirms its resolve, repeatedly stated in the United Nations, to decolonize the Territory of Western Sahara by terminating the responsibilities and powers which it possesses over that Territory as administering Power.

  • 2. In conformity with the aforementioned determination and in accordance with the negotiations advocated by the United Nations with the affected parties, Spain will proceed forthwith to institute a temporary administration in the Territory, in which Morocco and Mauritania will participate in collaboration with the Djemaa and to which will be transferred all the responsibilities and powers referred to in the preceding paragraph. It is accordingly agreed that two Deputy Governors nominated by Morocco and Mauritania shall be appointed to assist the Governor-General of the Territory in the performance of his functions. The termination of the Spanish presence in the Territory will be completed by February 28, 1976 at the latest.

  • 3. The views of the Saharan population, expressed through the Djemaa, will be respected.

  • 4. The three countries will inform the Secretary General of the United Nations of the terms set down in this instrument as a result of the negotiations entered into in accordance with Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations.

  • 5. The three countries involved declare that they arrived at the foregoing conclusions in the highest spirit of understanding and brotherhood, with due respect for the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and as the best possible contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security.

  • 6. This instrument shall enter into force on the date of publication in the Boletin Oficial del Estado of the 'Sahara Decolonization Act' authorising the Spanish Government to assume the commitments conditionally set forth in this instrument."

This declaration was signed by the president of the government Carlos Arias Navarro
Carlos Arias Navarro
Don Carlos Arias-Navarro, 1st Marquis of Arias-Navarro, Grandee of Spain, born Carlos Arias y Navarro was one of the best known Spanish politicians during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco....

, for Spain; the Prime Minister, Ahmed Osman, for Morocco; and the Foreign Minister, Hamdi Ould Mouknass, for Mauritania.

Further reading

  • Douglas E. Ashford, Johns Hopkins University, The Irredentist Appeal in Morocco and Mauritania, The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 5, 1962-12, p. 641-651
  • Tony Hodges (1983), Western Sahara: The Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill Books (ISBN 0-88208-152-7)
  • Anthony G. Pazzanita (2006), Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, Scarecrow Press
  • Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem, "Mauritania: A Saharan Frontier State", Journal of North Africa Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3-4, Sep-Dec. 2005, p. 491-506.
  • Pennell, C. R. (2000), Morocco since 1830. A History, New York University Press (ISBN 0-8147-6676-5)
  • Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff (1980), The Western Saharans. Background to Conflict, Barnes & Noble Books (ISBN 0-389-20148-0)

External links

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