On 14 November 1975, in Madrid, the delegations of Spain, Morocco and Mauritania agreed the Declaration of Principles on Western Sahara. Carlos Arias Navarro, Ahmed Osman and Hamdi Mouknass signed. The authentic text is Spanish. Morocco registered it with the UN on 9 December 1975, United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 988, no. 14450. It enters into force on 19 November, with publication of the Sahara Decolonization Act (Ley 40/1975) in the Boletín Oficial del Estado. Franco dies the next day.

Point 1: Spain reaffirms its resolve, stated repeatedly at the UN, to decolonize the Territory by ending the powers it holds as administering Power. Point 2: it will at once institute a temporary administration, with Morocco and Mauritania, in collaboration with the Yema’a; two Deputy Governors, nominated by Rabat and Nouakchott, assist the Governor-General. The Spanish presence ends by 28 February 1976 at the latest. Point 3: the views of the Saharan population, expressed through the Yema’a, will be respected.

Point 4: the three countries inform the UN Secretary-General, citing Article 33 of the Charter. Point 5: a declaration of understanding, brotherhood and respect for the Charter. Point 6 ties entry into force to the Spanish decolonization act. The Polisario Front and the Sahrawi people are not parties. The International Court of Justice, on 16 October, had said that neither Morocco nor Mauritania had sovereignty over the territory.

On 6 November Hassan II had sent the Green March: some 350,000 Moroccans towards the Saharan border. Madrid, with Franco in a coma, avoids war. Algeria and Polisario reject the accord. Spain tells the Secretary-General, on 26 February 1976, that it has ended its presence. Hans Corell, UN Legal Counsel, in 2002: the Madrid declaration did not transfer sovereignty and did not make Morocco or Mauritania the administering Power.

Morocco takes, in fact, the north; Mauritania, the southern third. The war with Polisario lasts 17 years. Mauritania withdraws by the Mauritanian–Sahrawi agreement of 19 August 1979. Morocco remains alone on the ground. The UN keeps Western Sahara on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. The ceasefire is of 1991. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, proclaimed in 1976, is recognised by the African Union, not by the UN as a state.

The accord was not published as such in the BOE; it was authorised by the decolonization law. The Cortes had ratified the law on 18 November. Corell notes that Morocco is not listed as administering Power on the UN list and does not transmit information under Article 73 e of the Charter.

The UN Treaty Series keeps the English translation: Declaration of principles on Western Sahara. Done at Madrid on 14 November 1975.

Image: Diego Delso, Royal Palace of Madrid, 27 December 2014, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Madrid Accords. Treaty text: Declaration of principles on Western Sahara. Done at Madrid on 14 November 1975.