News
Desert Entanglements – The Making of the Badiya by Sahrawi Refugees of Western Sahara (G. Volpato)
Gabriele Volpato is a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. He has investigated different facets of human-nature relationships among Cuban peasants, Sahrawi refugees and nomads of Western Sahara, and Kenyan...

“El Tribunal de Justicia de la UE se toma la auto-determinación en serio: reflexiones sobre las sentencias del 04.10.2024” (R.M. Carlos)
As the Polisario Front and Morocco are competing in a legal war through the European institutions, the Court of Justice of the European Union has finally decided to annul the trade agreements on agricultural and fishing products between the Cherifian Kingdom and the...

New article “Observed Participation: Sousveillance and Human Rights Activism in Moroccan-Occupied Western Sahara.”(D. Mark)
From the 1990s to 2020, human rights activism in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara emerged through a process of familiarization before serving a new purpose: as a non-violent instrument in the broader struggle for Sahrawi self-determination. © May 2025, American...

Arena en los ojos – Memoria y silencio de la colonización española de Marruecos y el Sáhara Occidental (L. Casielles)
Arena en los ojos is an ambitious and careful essay that brings together 15 years of research, reading and travel (Larache, Sidi Ifni, El Aaiún...) on this history of which we know very little: that of the Spanish colonies in these two parts of Africa (distinct but...

Saharan Winds – Energy Systems and Aeolian Imaginaries in Western Sahara (J. Allan)
As climate crisis ensues, a transition away from fossil fuels becomes urgent. However, some renewable energy developments are propagating injustices such as landgrabs, colonial dispossession, and environmentally destructive practices. Changing the way we imagine and...
International Workshop – Young scholars – Online – November 30
Western Sahara: A Multidisciplinary, Transregional Journée d’Etude The Western Sahara International Academic Observatory (OUISO) invites you to participate in an online workshop on Western Sahara and its regional context. The workshop is conceived as an...
New PhD thesis: the role of Minurso in Western Sahara – Meriem Naïli
NAILI Meriem, Peacekeeping and International Human Rights Law: Interrogating United Nations Mechanisms through a Study of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, PhD Dissertation, defended on 5 May 2022, Supervisors : Dr Irene Fernandez-Molina & Dr...
New Book : Exhortación, by the sahrawi poet Badi Mohamed Salem
Badi Mohamed Salem, Exhortación, Última Línea, 2022, 110 p., ISBN : 978-84-18492-26-6 This book is a collection of poems that Badi composed in the last stage of his life. In them he confronts with determination human frailty and death, universal experiences. Living in...
Latest issue of the Spanish Yearbook of International Law
Some papers of this last issue are dedicated to Western Sahara : Morocco, occupying power of Western Sahara: some notes about Spain’s foreign legal policy, the role of the Spanish doctrine and the rule of law in international relations Jaume Ferrer Lloret Is autonomy...
L’Ouest saharien Journal – issue 17 – Saharan Imaginaries
In the latest issue of the journal, two articles deal specifically with Western Sahara: Mark Drury : Naming the City: Saharan Urbanization and Disaggregated Sovereignty https://www.cairn.info/revue-l-ouest-saharien-2022-2-page-39.htm Andrea Bastide : Enjeux...
New parution – Conflict and Peace in Western Sahara. The Role of the UN’s Peacekeeping Mission (MINURSO). János Besenyó, Joseph Huddleston, Yahia Zoubir
János Besenyó, R. Joseph Huddleston, Yahia H. Zoubir (ed.), 2022, Conflict and Peace in Western Sahara. The Role of the UN's Peacekeeping Mission (MINURSO), London, Routledge, 354 p. Abstract: This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of MINURSO (the...
New parution – Les enfants des nuages. Une ethnologue dans la tourment saharienne, Sophie Caratini
Sophie Caratini, 2022. Les enfants des nuages. Une ethnologue dans la tourmente saharienne, Éditions Thierry Marchaisse, 562 p. Abstract: This is the story of an inexperienced young girl who sets off into the Mauritanian desert in search of the great nomadic Rgaybat,...
New publicación – Rebelarse en el desierto. Movilizaciones políticas en el oeste sahariano (1932-2020), Francesco Correale, Laura Feliu, Alberto López Bargados
Francesco Correale, Laura Feliu, Alberto López Bargados (ed.), 2022. Rebelarse en el desierto. Movilizaciones políticas en el oeste sahariano (1932-2020), Barcelona, Alborán Bellaterra, 634 p. Abstract: The Western Sahara is an indisputable historical and cultural...
Brief history of the Western Sahara – Isaías Barreñada
Notice of publication Isaías Barreñada, 2022, Breve historia del Sahara Occidental, Catarata, 144 p. Almost 50 years after Spain's abandonment, the Sahrawi conflict continues to mark Spanish foreign policy in the region. Western Sahara is an illustrative example of a...
Four complaints for torture on Sahrawi political prisoners
Four complaints for torture filed against Morocco before the UN Committee against Torture On Thursday June 9, four complaints denouncing violations of the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Torture were filed against the State of Morocco before the UN...
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New publication “Around Western Sahara: ongoing research, testimonies and novels”. L’Ouest saharien, issue 12
"Autour du Sahara Occidental : recherches en cours, témoignages et nouvelles" in Cahiers L'Ouest saharien, n°12, 2020, 278 p. This issue of L'Ouest saharien is published in the context of the resumption of the war in Western Sahara, which raises great uncertainties...
The Institute of Research for Development (IRD) violates International Law in Western Sahara
Academic Council Communiqué “The Institute of Research for Development (IRD) violates International Law in North Africa (Western Sahara)” One year ago (June 2020), our Observatory discovered that academic partnerships were underway between Moroccan institutions and...