During the seminar organized at the Palais des Nations by the Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UN office in Geneva, experts and academics from France, Denmark, Canada, Indonesia and Iraq presented the findings from their comparative studies between the arrangements in the Moroccan autonomy initiative for the Sahara in the management of natural resources and those implemented in the statutes of autonomy in Aceh (Indonesia), Kurdistan (Iraq) New Caledonia (France) , Nunavik and Nunavut (Canada) and Greenland (Denmark).

At the end of this academic debate, the speakers were unanimous in stressing the importance of mechanisms of natural resource management provided in the Moroccan autonomy initiative, compared to international standards.

They also highlighted the opening of the autonomy initiative to negotiation with other parties in the UN framework and mechanisms for popular approval, as well as constitutional guarantees made to the irreversibility of the arrangements for sustainable management of natural resources.

On the other hand, they commended the efforts made by Morocco to upgrade the Sahara region and meet the economic backwardness it witnessed during the long period of Spanish colonization.

In this regard, Professor Jean-Louis Roy from the University of Montreal, said that the Moroccan autonomy initiative is inseparable from the dynamics of constitutional and political reforms in the Kingdom. These reforms, he said, provide a guarantee on Morocco's commitment to creating the conditions necessary for successful democratic political negotiations, initiated in the framework of the UN, to achieve a political compromise, promoting reconciliation , peace, stability and economic integration of the Maghreb.

Professor Alain-G. Gagnon from the University of Quebec at Montreal, said that negotiation is the only way to achieve better negotiated management of natural resources in the region, while respecting the interests of the nation and its integrity territorial.

Supporting autonomous development needs of local people must go hand in hand with the preservation of sovereign powers of the central state and the implementation of the principle of national solidarity, he added, noting that "in some of its aspects, the Moroccan Initiative goes beyond autonomy in Spain or Quebec, which gives it a unique richness. "

For his part, Professor Séverine Blaise, from the University of New Caledonia, noted that, like New Caledonia, the Moroccan Initiative provides a broad economic autonomy. Given the limited resources in the Sahara, Mrs. Blaise noted that their management has neither the same importance or the same issues in the context of New Caledonia, noting that this issue was discussed in 2011 between the parties, under the innovative approach of the Personal Envoy of the UN SG.

In his presentation of the economic independence of Kurdistan, Professor Saad Jawad, from the University of London, stressed the importance given by the Moroccan initiative to the welfare of the population of the Sahara. This aspect has been considered very late in the context of Kurdistan. Moreover, the Moroccan Initiative provides for the supervision by the organs of the region on all local activities related to daily well-being of populations, economically, socially and culturally. It says in Article 13 that the Sahara region has the financial resources necessary for its development.

For his part, Dr. Lise Lyck, professor at the Copenhagen School of Business, noted that the regions of Greenland and Sahara have experienced a huge development, through the efforts of Denmark and Morocco. The negotiation of the Autonomy Statute for the Sahara should foster a consensus response and sustainable management of natural resources.

Finally, Dr. Achim Wennmann, a researcher at the Higher Institute of International Studies in Geneva, noted the appropriateness of the arrangements expected in the Moroccan autonomy initiative, in terms of the management of natural resources, compared to the Economic autonomy in Aceh.

The Moroccan autonomy initiative is in line with international standards in this area, including natural resource management because it sets up a real democratic system, in which the population of the Sahara region will fully enjoy their rights and freedoms as well as economic and social prosperity, he said, estimating that the process of its negotiation and approval enables acceptance by the people concerned.

This seminar is part of a series of international meetings that the Mission of Morocco in Geneva organized in 2009, 2010 and 2011 on "Dimensions of Human Rights and Democracy", "Satisfaction with the principle of self-determination "and" governance in the Moroccan Initiative for Negotiating an Autonomy Statute for the Sahara region. "

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