United Nations Security Council Resolution 1979

UN Security Council Resolution 1979
Bomb damage in the town of Tifariti from the Western Sahara conflict
Date	27 April 2011
Meeting no.	6,523
Code	S/RES/1979 (Document)
Subject	The situation concerning Western Sahara
Voting summary	15 voted for None voted against None abstained
Result	Adopted
Security Council composition
Permanent members	China  France  Russia  United Kingdom  United States
Non-permanent members	Bosnia–Herzegovina  Brazil  Colombia  Germany  Gabon  India  Lebanon  Nigeria  Portugal  South Africa
← 1978 Lists of resolutions 1980 →

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1979, adopted unanimously on April 27, 2011, after reaffirming all previous resolutions on the Western Sahara including 1754 (2007), 1783 (2007), 1813 (2008), 1871 (2009) and 1920 (2010), the Council discussed prospects for a settlement of the dispute and extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until April 30, 2012.^[1]

The resolution did not include a monitoring mechanism for human rights in the mandate of MINURSO, amid disagreements among diplomats.^[2][3] The Security Council was criticised by some nations including South Africa and Nigeria of hypocrisy–where MINURSO would be the only United Nations peacekeeping mission without a human rights mandate.^[4] However, it did mention human rights for the first time.^[5] Both Morocco and the Polisario Front welcomed the resolution; Morocco praised it for recognizing Morocco's offer of autonomy to Western Sahara, while the Polisario Front noted the increased use of human rights language in the text.^[3]