The UN decolonisation program

The Charter of the United Nations recognises the right of peoples to self determination (*6). It also recognises that, largely because of colonialism, not all peoples who claim this right will be immediately able to exercise it fully (*7). Peoples in this situation are deemed to be in non-self-governing territories and for them the UN General Assembly has established de-colonisation programs (*8).
In 1963 Western Sahara was included in the UN list of the non-self-governing territories and in October 1964 the UN Decolonisation Committee (*9)adopted its first Resolution on Western Sahara, urging Spain to start the process of decolonising the territory (*10). The UN General Assembly issued a similar Resolution on December 16, 1965 (*11).
Initially, Spain resisted this call but in August 1974 it informed the UN that it was prepared to organize a referendum on self-determination in the territory. In this referendum, the people of Western Sahara could choose either full independence or to remain attached to Spain (*12). Morocco and Mauritania opposed the referendum idea, which excluded the possibility of integration with Morocco or Mauritania. Between 12 and 19 May 1975, a UN mission of inquiry was sent to report on the situation in Western Sahara. The mission visited Western Sahara, Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria. In its report, it stated that support for Polisario and for independence in Western Sahara was widespread and recommended the holding of a referendum for self-determination (*13).