New Caledonia and Western Sahara: 2 territories with identical trajectories

The APROFED association is contacting you again this week following the Senate’s examination of the draft institutional revision concerning New Caledonia, this Tuesday, February 24, 2026 (see Draft constitutional law relating to New Caledonia | Senate )

By chance of timing, the fate of another non-self-governing territory is also being discussed at the same time in Washington, under the auspices of the United States and the UN, namely Western Sahara (see Sahara: Trump calls for a new round of negotiations on February 23 and 24 ), which has many similarities with the New Caledonian issue .

Indeed, after more than 50 years of conflict, Morocco, occupying almost all of this territory and claiming sovereignty over it from its neighbors Algeria and Mauritania, has just submitted a draft agreement aimed at making it more autonomous . Although validated by UN bodies through a resolution (No. 2797) and by a large number of Western states in view of their interests (exploitation of resources, fight against terrorism and control of immigration to Europe), (see TV5 Monde: Three experts analyze the resumption of negotiations on Western Sahara – Maghreb Online ), the fact remains that the proposals made within this draft do not fully satisfy the Polisario Front, the local independence movement , similar to the FLNKS for New Caledonia.

Just as in New Caledonia, the following problems  arise :

– of the electorate , in particular its expansion to include Moroccans who have been living in the country for less than 10 years,

– the demography and the fate of the 200,000 Sahrawi refugees in Algeria whom the independence movement wants to see return, which worries the Moroccan central government, fearing a demographic shift (cf. lematindalgerie.com/sahara-occidental-offensive-diplomatique-de-washington-pour-imposer-lautonomie/?amp=1 ),

– the right to self-determination , where no referendum or popular consultation is stipulated in the draft. An approval mechanism not based exclusively on the Sahrawi people, as required by international law, also poses a problem.

– of local governance, for which the Polisario Front would like to acquire its political autonomy while Morocco seems only willing to grant it at best administrative autonomy (cf. The Moroccan Sahara: from the project of political autonomy to the status of legal autonomy ).

– and the non-sharing of wealth . The Moroccan state has excluded any discussion on the sharing of the territory’s natural resources, a central issue for the Polisario Front (see Western Sahara: new round of closed-door negotiations in Washington | Mediaterranee! Daily news ).

Although the United States is putting pressure (see Western Sahara: Washington puts pressure, Polisario reaffirms self-determination, Algiers reserved | Emerging Maghreb  ; Negotiations on the Sahara: Washington presses for a quick solution ) to finalize an agreement, the separatists say they are wary of a project that is currently based only on political promises without any legal basis , like the Bougival and Elysée-Oudinot projects proposed by France.

It should be noted that France and Spain, in other words the European Union, appear to have been deliberately marginalized by the United States in the context of these negotiations (see Sahara: Washington imposes new negotiations ).

Even though the Moroccan plan is inspired by the Spanish autonomous communities (cf. Western Sahara: new round of negotiations behind closed doors in Washington | Mediaterranee! Daily news ), just like the French project for New Caledonia, making the latter a regional hybrid state within France, which the FLNKS opposes.

It is therefore possible through this article to observe the similarity between the causes of these 2 non-self-governing territories, Kanaky (New Caledonia) and Western Sahara, whose inhabitants both face overly centralizing states, even considered feudal in the case of Morocco by the Polisario Front (cf. Decolonization process of Western Sahara: Trump calls for a new round ).

Another striking element is the difficulty in proposing a flag , which is why Morocco is currently reluctant even though the US envoy, on the principle of American-style federalism, has proposed to Morocco the integration of symbols of regional sovereignty.

In conclusion, and in the words of Ali Oussi, Western Sahara remains, according to the United Nations, a non-self-governing territory awaiting decolonization. The central issue is not that of autonomy administered under Moroccan sovereignty, but rather the inalienable right of a people to decide their own future, without pressure or fait accompli (see Western Sahara decolonization process: Trump calls for a new round). This conclusion could also be perfectly applied to New Caledonia. 

The only difference , much to the dismay of Kanak separatists, is the intervention of the United States and the UN in the negotiations on Western Sahara, which is not the case for New Caledonia  ; unsurprising given that it is a territory of a Western country, a member of the UN Security Council and NATO, which is not the case for Morocco. In other words, interventionism has its limits.

Wishing you a pleasant read and reminding you that federalism is the only solution to reconcile unity in diversity.

The APROFED association