Houston Agreement

The Houston Agreement was the result of negotiations between the Polisario Front and Morocco on the organization of a referendum, which would constitute an expression of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, possibly leading to full independence or integration within Morocco. The talks were conducted during 1997 in Houston, United States, under the auspices of United Nations representative James Baker, using the framework of the 1991 Settlement Plan. The agreement was supposed to lead to a referendum in 1998, after it had been prevented from taking place in 1992 as originally envisioned.

The Baker Accord was signed at Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University under the aegis of United Nations Security Council between 14th and 16 September 1997. in Houston and came to be known as Houston Accord. Both the parties signed the final document listing out all agreements, and was documented as UN doc. S/1997/742 par 4-13. It was the first time in the peace process that any agreement was signed between the rival parties. Morocco wanted to augment the voter list based on the census taken during the Spanish time of 1970s, while Polisario rejected the proposal, leading to the prevention of referendum of the accord.