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Friday, March 29, 2024
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Diplomats believe that autonomy initiative is "generous" and "very bold" in comparison with systems used in Europe, Canada and in Caribbean States
 
The Permanent Mission of Morocco to the United Nations organized Monday at UN headquarters, an international seminar on the theme: "foreign relations of the autonomous regions and cross-border cooperation."


 This seminar was an opportunity to highlight the strengths of the Moroccan autonomy initiative in the Sahara region in the context of a comparative exercise with the autonomies in Canada, Europe and the Caribbean states Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda.
 
This is part of the series of research seminars organized by the Mission of Morocco to the United Nations to promote the Moroccan autonomy plan.
 
The seminar was chaired by Marc Pinaud, Senior Advisor to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. It was run by experts, researchers and academics from Canada, Italy and Trinidad and Tobago.
 
In his opening speech, Mr Pinaud mentioned the provisions of the Moroccan autonomy plan
in the Sahara region, with emphasis on aspects related to external relations.
 
He said that "the great innovation of the Moroccan project is to provide a division of powers between central government and autonomous region, in the field of external relations."
 
Mr Pinaud concluded that "the extent of the Autonomous Region would go well beyond current practice in most statutes of autonomy", stating that "not only the region would be consulted by the government on international activities in the fields of competence, but the Moroccan Initiative also allows the autonomous Region to exercise its own external relations in the framework of, now internationally recognized, decentralized cooperation. "
 
In his presentation, Professor Jean-Louis Roy, President and CEO of the International Partnership of Montreal in Canada, mentioned the historical events that have marked Canada, including the colonial period, and that led to the current federal structure of this country.
 
He noted the similarities between the system of Canadian Provinces and the autonomy initiative regarding external relations, stressed in particular the representation of populations of the Sahara autonomous region within Parliament and other national institutions, as provided for in Article 18 of the autonomy proposal which will enable the region to defend the interests of local people and ensure that their concerns are taken into account by the central Government.
 
Mr. Roy concluded by stating that "the most important of these investments is the content of the Initiative itself, proposals covering the broad areas of living together, individual rights to collective institutions…".
 
Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Dean of the Law Faculty of the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, emphasized "the generosity of the Moroccan autonomy initiative for the region Sahara "autonomy compared to systems in three countries: Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda.
 
She said that "it is very clear that the Moroccan plan has a much longer range than the autonomy in Caribbean island states, with the provisions in key areas, including legislative, executive and judicial, which are much larger and especially more clearly stated than in the Caribbean. "
 
Ms. Belle Antoine added that "in addition to promoting equity, the strength of Morocco's proposal stems from its objective of building consensus and negotiation, which is a totally different approach to states of two Caribbean islands ".
 
Finally, Thomas Benedikter, Director, Center for Political Studies and Civics of South Tyrol in Italy, introduced several autonomic practices in Europe, including Austria, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Italy and Scandinavian countries.
 
He felt that the autonomy initiative is "very bold" stressing, in this regard, that "in most European statutes autonomy, external relations are excluded from the powers of the autonomous entity, and remain exclusively reserved to the central government. "
 
Mr. Benedikter concluded by stating that "concerning the external relations of the future autonomous region of the Sahara, Morocco has clearly opted for a more advanced level of authority in this regard, which is similar to that provided for northern islands by Denmark and Finland. "
 
The seminar was attended by nearly 80 people, mostly diplomats in New York, including several ambassadors and deputy permanent representatives.


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