Following the second regular session of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs for the year 2008 held on December 25-26 2008 in Rabat, and which focused on two essential points:

* Education in Southern Territories
* Good governance and addressing purported employment of human rights

Members of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs registered the concrete and clear progress made by Morocco in the field of the promotion and protection of the human rights culture through a series of true reform initiatives, trough its constitutional and legal arsenal in addition to the accumulation of experiences through the contribution of political, civil, economic, social and cultural bodies which provided appropriate democratic climate in the country. Morocco guarantees freedom of expression to all people and their right to party affiliation and civil union in response to the contents of all international charters including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international covenants relating to it. All this has concerned the citizen and placed the Kingdom of Morocco in the best way towards sustainable human development making citizens at the core of its interests

The setting up of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs comes in the context of this great democratic change based on participatory approach as a viable democratic mechanism in dealing with all issues relating relating to the Moroccan Sahrawi citizen - who was exploited by malicious propaganda by the enemies of our glorious nation – in addition to following initiatives reflected in the royal amnesty to prisoners of opinion in the Southern Territories following the Council’s request to the King that had a significant impact on the Western Sahara population.

Members of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs at their meeting, which coincided with the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights do state hereby that they:

• Are proud of the Moroccan human rights experience achieved by the willingness of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God protect him.
• Back to the Royal letter on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 2008 relating to human rights making  Morocco among democratic nations which eliminate All Forms of Discrimination
• Consider that the granting of autonomy for the southern regions as the highest form of self-determination another station in the course of democratic construction in Morocco since it allows the inhabitants of the southern regions enjoy all political, economic, social and cultural rights
• Emphasize the positive action course taken by the National Program for Housing, Employment, Health and Development in the Southern Provinces as one of the entrances of human rights as universally recognized 
• Support the restorative approach adopted by the Council in solving the problems of workers and retirees Phousboukraa as an example in this context
• Laud the initiative to hand over honourable Dahirs to elders for identification
• Praise the issue of teachers inherited from the Spanish Era

Members of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs seize the opportunity to alert the national and international public opinion on the conditions experienced by our brothers detained in the Tindouf camps in a situation marked by pressure and coercion and forced to live in the absence of full freedom of expression which is one of the constants of global human rights under the domination of fear and despair due to lack of minimum decent living conditions and the right to Moroccan identity and freedom of movement, and in this context:

* Members of the Council denounce
 all kinds of humiliation and cruelty of torture and detention suufered by our sequestered brothers in Tindouf over thirty years ago.

* Express regret and forthright condemnation of all practices contrary to the values of human rights perpetrated on Algerian soil under its leaders, encouraged by them thus contributing to the continuation of such practices contrary to international norms

* We, in the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs,  call upon all organizations across the world and noble defenders of human rights and dignity, to work to lift all restrictions on our brothers detained in Tindouf through impartial objective field  investigations with accuracy and patience so that Moroccan Sahrawis can achieve their hope by the completion of autonomy rule that will ensure people and families in the Tindouf camps return to their country with dignity and enjoy all the rights Under the wise leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI may God preserve him.

Rabat: December 25, 2008