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A constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was first promulgated in 1976, but it has been revised several times since then. The last major redrafting came in 1991, but this version was further changed by the Sahrawi National Council - the SADR's parliament in exile - in 1995 and 1999.
Contents
The constitution provides for a separation of powers between judicial, legislative, and executive branches. It names Arabic as the national language and Islam as the state religion, and grants every citizen freedom of speech and the right to property. It further determines that an independent Western Sahara will be a multiparty democracy with a market economy. Presently, however, the constitution ties the SADR to the Polisario Front, which is working to establish an independent Western Sahara. For example, the Secretary General of the Polisario Front (now Mohamed Abdelaziz) is constitutionally identical to the President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, until the achievement of independence.
This is because the constitution differentiates between before and after the Western Sahara is independent. Thus, several clauses will not come into effect until the proclamation of independence, and various changes in the political order will then occur (see e.g. articles 9, 10, 30, 31, 45). Among other things, the constitution details a transitional phase after independence has been declared (see articles 130-133, Chapter Three [1]) in which the POLISARIO is detached from the republic and transformed into a political party among others.
For information on the institutions and elections that are regulated in the constitution of the SADR, see here and here. For information on the political institutions of the Polisario Front, see here.
Preamble
The following is an English translation of the 1999 version preamble of the Constitution of the SADR.
The Sahrawi people – an Arab, African and Muslim people – who decided to launch their liberation war in 1973, under the leadership of the POLISARIO Front, to liberate their country from colonialism – and end the occupation – resolute in that way in a long resistance in which they have never stopped during their history to defend their liberty and their dignity, proclaim:
their resolve to pursues the struggle for the perfection of the sovereignty of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and the integrity of their national territory; their respect for the principles of justice and democracy contained in the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man (of 10 December 1948), in the African Charter on Human Rights and Peoples' Rights (of 26 June 1981) and in the international treaties entered by SADR; their conviction that the liberty and the dignity of man is not possible except in a society where the rule of law is sovereign and where the conditions for social development are created in conformity with the values of a stable society, the said society, its civilisation, its religion, its national culture, as well as the requirements of the modern world; their determination to create democratic institutions that guarantee liberty and fundamental human rights, economic and social rights, the rights of the family, the basic unit of society; their belief in the necessity of building a Great Maghreb, of concreting the unity of the work of Africa, the unity of the Arab nation and to establish international relations based on cooperation, concord, mutual respect and the establishment of peace in the world.General principles
The following is an English translation of the 1999 version General principles of the Constitution of the SADR.