Request to add Western Sahara Borders

Help and support Tagging help & support
1

I request that a border line be added between Western Sahara and Morocco and the SADR be displayed.
Western Sahara has been under Moroccan occupation since 1975, and it is not administered as part of Morocco under international law. Although Western Sahara is not a UN member state, neither is Palestine, whose borders are shown on OSM. The vast majority of countries do not recognise Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, and the UN’s MINURSO mission continues to work toward a referendum on self‑determination.

Portraying Western Sahara as part of Morocco is neither apolitical nor neutral, as it aligns entirely with the Moroccan state narrative rather than with international law (UNSC, 2002; AU, 2015; EuGH, 2016, 2018; WSRW, 2021)

AU (2015). Legal Opinion. The Office of The Legal Counsel and Direc-
torate for Legal Affairs Of The African Union Commission.

UNSC. (2002). Letter dated 29 January 2002 from the Under-Secretary-
General for Legal Affairs, the Legal Counsel, addressed to the Presi-
dent of the Security Council. United Nations Security Council.

EuGH. (2016). Urteil des Gerichtshofs (Große Kammer). 21. Dezem-
ber 2016. In der Rechtssache C104/16 P.

EuGH. (2018). Urteil des Gerichtshofs (Große Kammer). 19. Juli 2018. In der
Rechtssache T-180/14.

WSRW (2021). The EU Court cases on Western Sahara. Western Sahara
Resource Watch. Western Sahara Resource Watch

2

Hi and welcome to OSM

Please read Disputed territories - OpenStreetMap Wiki and search this forum for this topic.

3

I think this should be explained more in detail once and for all, instead of linking to an extremely vague Wiki page.

As a Moroccan contributor, I will try to stay as unbiased as possible.

OSM maps the reality that’s on the ground. See Ground truth - OpenStreetMap Wiki.

The ground reality is that a majority of that territory is controlled and administered by Morocco, while the rest is controlled by the SADR (whether you think that’s fair or not). And that’s actually the reality that’s reflected on OSM’s default maps.

image
image1408×1190 162 KB

Also, your claim that the vast majority of countries do not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara is completely false. Around 120 countries have either directly recognized sovereignty of Morocco over the territory, opened a consulate/embassy to Morocco in that territory, withdrew their support for SADR, or recognized the Moroccan autonomy plan as the best solution. This includes the US, UK, France, Israel, Spain, and I could keep going.

But in any case, this whole point is entirely irrelevant, because even if 120 countries or 0 countries recognized either side, OSM would only care about the reality on the ground. Dumping a bibliography of legal letters from the 2000’s also holds zero weight on OSM.

Your second claim that OSM aligns entirely with the Moroccan state narrative is also completely mistaken. The Moroccan state narrative is that 100% of the territory belongs to it. But as you saw on the image, OSM shows the actual, physical separation of the controlled parts. Hence, it cannot align with the Moroccan state narrative.

I’m not saying the territory belongs to one or the other, nor how fair the situation is. I’m just stating the facts and how OSM treats these cases: by staying neutral and mapping what’s on the ground.

4

Just to be clear: Western Sahara as a whole is mapped as a separate relation in the map data. See Relation: ‪Western Sahara‬ (‪2559126‬) | OpenStreetMap

It doesn’t have a big label across it in the default Carto view on openstreetmap.org because of the addition of overlapping areas of de facto control, as described above.

6

What is internationally recognized by the United Nations is that Western Sahara is not recognized as part of Morocco and remains a disputed Non-Self-Governing Territory.

That is what the map should reflect.

If Morocco exercises de facto control over part of the territory, that can be represented with tags such as controlled_by=*. But de facto control does not erase the separate status of Western Sahara or turn that territory into Moroccan territory.

Both facts can and should be represented at the same time: Morocco’s de facto control and Western Sahara’s distinct, disputed international status.

7

Spain doesn’t recognize Wester Sahara being part of Morocco.
Vast majority declines it.
So that’s simply not true.

8

tagging used by OpenStreetMap is already described at Disputed territories - OpenStreetMap Wiki, and there are no plans to change it

9

already done, see Relation: ‪Western Sahara‬ (‪2559126‬) | OpenStreetMap linked in the post above yours

10

That is what the map reflects. That’s what my previous comment above—that you reacted with a thumbs-down to for some reason…?—was directly speaking to.

The entirety of Western Sahara is represented in the map data by this relation: Western Sahara

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is represented by this relation: SADR

The ‘berm’ between the SADR and Moroccan controlled territories is represented by this relation: Berm security wall

Areas under Moroccan control are represented by this relation: Moroccan Sahara (Controlled Territory)

The entirety of Morocco’s claimed territory, including the entirety of Western Sahara, is represented by this relation: Morocco

11

Nope, the border is not being displayed as disputed like other territories

12

note that how borders are displayed is decided by specific map styles

these are own projects, including OSM Carto, default map style at osm.org

13

That doesn’t eliminates the point that the border isn’t appearing by default.

Also even custom tiles like OpenFreeMap are not getting that border even with custom styles.

14

and I am not aware of plans to change that, for various reasons OpenStreetMap shows de facto borders at this default map style at osm.org

(not sure is it helpful or making you feel better, but Morocco government would prefer Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic to not be show at all)

but data is there so map styles (including your own one) can shows this data if you want

You would need to contact OpenFreeMap and other tile providers about that (though check first is it really missing and has it been requested at their public issue tracker, if they have one)

15

Why does OSM need to do what Morocco government wants?

16

Would you like some help creating a map that displays the borders that you would like to see in this area?

17

it does not need to do so and is not doing what they want either