"Advocate-General gives opinion on the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination", 12 January 2018

European Union Court of Justice's Advocate General Melchior Wathelet has handed down his opinion this week on the legal claims by Western Sahara Campaign UK’s (WSCUK) before the European Court of Justice finding that the European Union had failed to respect the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination. According to the law firm Leigh Day, which represented WSCUK, the Opinion is extremely significant in relation to all EU Agreements with third countries not only to the rights of the Saharawi people. WSCUK is an independent voluntary organisation founded in 1984 with the aim of supporting the recognition of the right of the Saharawi people of Western Sahara to self-determination and independence and to raise awareness of the unlawful occupation of the territory by Morocco... The case was heard by the European Court of Justice in September 2017. Finding comprehensively in favour of WSCUK, the Advocate General found the European Union has failed to... fulfil its obligation not to recognise the illegal situation resulting from the breach of the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination by the Kingdom of Morocco"...