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The Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) is a consultative body, a true link between the King and the Sahrawi population in all its components. Its creation testifies to the will and determination to anchor the participative approach in the dynamics of development, as well as in the running of local affairs, where all the live forces of the south, notably women and the youth, are integrated. I. the involvement of sahrawi youth and women in the edification of the autonomous region through the composition and missions of corcas CORCAS is composed of a mosaic of personalities reflecting the diversity of the components of the region. This is explained by the Royal commitment in favor of integrating the live forces of the region within the Council in order to guarantee them a balanced and credible representativeness. Hence, its composition takes into account the criteria for the representativeness of the different components of the Sahrawi population, with tribal equilibrium and political and provincial representativeness taken into the fold, too. The same goes for the involvement of social and economic actors, as well as women and the youth. In this respect, women are represented with nearly 10 per cent of the members. Moreover, over 9 vice-presidents, three are women. This female representativeness is a sort of recognition of their place as active participants in political and social life, both at the regional and national planes. It is also an acknowledgment of the role that they have always played in the defense of the territorial integrity of the Kingdom. In addition, their presence within the Council establishes the gender-based approach advocated by the Moroccan Autonomy Project, according to which the Sahrawi women are represented within the regional and national political bodies. CORCAS also integrates the elite of the emerging youth which will infuse it with a new dynamic. Indeed, the presence of youth within the Council responds to the political, economic and social mutations that the Sahara has been undergoing, and allows the Sahrawi youth to better prepare for their future. The Royal conception is nurtured by the idea according to which the Sahara autonomous region cannot be edified without the participation of the youth and women of the region of the South. These two components have to participate with responsibility and determination in the construction of the autonomous region, by inaugurating a new page in the history of the region and the country at large. CORCAS equally comprises the members of civil society who operate in the area of Human rights, and who contribute to the defense of the national cause as well as the supervision of citizens. In fact, its principle is to convince « (...) all the Sahrawis, wherever they may be in the provinces of the South, in the camps of Tindouf, in Mauritania, in Spain or elsewhere (...) (to) recognize that the autonomy project of autonomy by HM the King is a project that historically and definitively settles the conflicts that the Sahrawis had had in the past with the national administrations ever since independence[1]». II. the promotion of the youth and women through the policies adopted by corcas Thanks to her daily combat as well as her perseverance, the Sahrawi woman could impose herself on the scene, and show evidence of dynamism and creativity in several domains. She was able to consolidate her place as an active participant in political life, and thereby contribute to the economic and social development of the region and the country as a whole. The mobilization of Sahrawi women for the national cause is laudable. They act within the framework of an active and responsible community life. Some of them were able to flee the camps of Tindouf, after having discovered a leeway away from the Polisario for rejoining the mother-land, leaving behind them many years of suffering and bitterness. Indeed, they have been seizing every which occasion so as to denounce the atrocities perpetrated by the Polisario, particularly towards the sequestered mothers and their own little ones. The presence of some of them within CORCAS is highly significant. They bring in a value-added to the latter's missions, notably in terms of the advancement of women and the youth, as well as their sensitization into the many merits of the Autonomy Project. These women who have found out the path of reason are today committed to defending those that are still subject to living ordeals in the camps of Tindouf in Algeria, all in the eyes of international bodies. Let us recall here that thousands of children have been literally snatched away for many years from their parents in order to be indoctrinated, and inculcated many a fallacious idea. «I have only become aware of the reality of things after I had rejoined Morocco, where I have been received with open arms, and have seen with my own eyes the important steps crossed by Morocco on matters of democratization and the respect for human right, » says Miss Saadani Maoulainine, a member of CORCAS, and an ex-deportee in Cuba, apropos of the distorted image that she had had of her country, an image that has nothing to do with the reality, during a meeting in Paris on the theme "woman citizen, committed woman." A member of CORCAS, and the president of "the Association of the Sahrawi Children Deported in Cuba," Miss Saadani Maoulainine militates in order to shed light upon and lay bare the exactions committed by the Polisario, as well as on the situation of the sequestered in the camps of Tindouf. These women and many others still, are today mobilized around the national cause. They undertake their action at the regional, national and international levels. What is more, they take great care in informing the international community of the will that Sahrawi women have for putting an end to the Sahara conflict within the respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Morocco, and to definitively close this dossier on the basis of international legality. Let us cite the case of Keltoum Al Khyate. From among her many interventions, let us mention her participation in the debates of the fourth commission in October 2007. Mrs. El Khyate has notably denounced "the prevalent situation in the camps of Tindouf, most particularly the separation of families." Besides, she deemed the Moroccan Project of Autonomy to be «a peaceful situation that allows for putting an end to the conflict (...)», and that it is « (...) an instrument of development susceptible of benefitting not only the Sahara, but the region at large». In turn, Gajmoula Bent Ebbi, a CORCAS militant, an ex-member of the Polisario, and a fervent militant for the defense of territorial integrity, affirmed during the afore-said debate that «Morocco has made a step forward with its Initiative; the elections of September 2007 are significantly illustrative of the large participation of the population of the Sahara, a token of the fact that theirs is a will to follow the footsteps of Morocco in its Initiative». Within the framework of the policy of dialogue, the representativeness of women within CORCAS will equally allow for developing ties with the local population, especially with women. They could lead actions on the basis of proximity, listening and assistance, all the while taking advantage of the favorable climate which is characterized by the broadening of individual and collective liberties, as well as the efforts deployed by the national bodies concerned with the protection of Human rights, such as the Advisory Council for Human Rights and Diwan Al Madhalim, both of which have opened local branches in the provinces of the South. The proposal of autonomy is a large-scale project that will not come to fruition without broadening the scope of participation in the management of local affairs, and the emergence of a new elite capable enough to assume the responsibilities for regional development. The guidance and training of this local elite constitute the fundamental mission of CORCAS. To this end, the latter is called upon to develop a new strategy for the advancement of the youth as long as the region is imperatively in need of successfully achieving its political and economic emancipation. The activity of CORCAS towards the youth also targets that fraction that has been indoctrinated by the Polisario. Besides, CORCAS has for a mission to stand by the young sequestered Sahrawis who express the desire to rejoin the country. Let us recall the communiqué from the Tindouf camps which bears the signature of many Sahrawis. In this communiqué, entitled "the youth of return," the signatories have sharply denounced the blockade imposed by the Direction of the Polisario against the sequestered Sahrawi population, expressing by the same token the wish to rejoin the mother-land. They declare their total adhesion to the Moroccan Initiative for Negotiating an Autonomy Statute in the Sahara Region, which tells a great deal about the intense state of decay that gnaws away at the Polisario, which finds itself barefaced before a youth that is hostile to the manner with which the Direction of the Polisario administers the Sahara dossier. The call for reason and reconciliation that was launched by Morocco appears, then, favorably received by the young Sahrawis, inside and outside of the country alike. The Sahrawi youth has to fully assume its role in the edification of a modern Morocco, one that is resolutely turned towards democracy and prosperity. In order to achieve this, it needs to be assisted and given due support. If the unionist and legitimist voice of CORCAS, which came to be heard as soon as the first round of negotiations, has allowed it to carry off its diplomatic bet, it is for and by this youth that it could contribute to the success of the principal challenges connected with the autonomy option; namely, the political emancipation and the socio-economic development of the Sahara region.
[1] From an interview with the President of CORCAS in le Point Magazine on 09 November 2007. khadija ENNACIRI
Professor at the faculty of law, Mohammedia
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