Since the SADR does not control El Aaiún, it has established a temporary capital in Tifariti, although most of the day-to-day administration happens in Rabuni, one of the Sahrawi refugee camps located in Tindouf, Algeria.
[citation needed] Following the evacuation of the Spaniards, due to the Moroccan Green March, Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania signed the Madrid Accords on 14 November 1975, six days before Francisco Franco died.
On 26 February 1976, Spain informed the United Nations (UN) that as of that date it had terminated its presence in Western Sahara and relinquished its responsibilities, which left the region devoid of any Administering Power.
[13] The creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was proclaimed on 27 February 1976, as the Polisario declared the need for a new entity to fill what they considered a political void left by the departing Spanish colonial administration.
[16] The Constitution also declares a commitment to the principles of human rights and to the concept of a Greater Maghreb, as a regional variant of Pan-Arabism.
Since its inception in 1976, the various constitutional revisions have transformed the republic from an ad hoc managerial structure into something approaching an actual governing apparatus.
From the late 1980s the parliament began to take steps to institute a division of powers and to disentangle the republic's structures from those of the Polisario Front, although without clear effect to date.
[18] In 2016, the bar association (going by the name Union of Sahrawi Lawyers) issued a report calling for the implementation of political and civil rights.
[citation needed] The Sahrawi National Council is composed of 53 members, all from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro.
Most countries take censuses every ten years, and some every five in order to stay abreast of change and miscounts; the last count was conducted in 1970, and even that data by colonial Spain is considered unreliable due to large nomadic populations.
[20] Under international law, Morocco's transfer of its own civilians into Non-Self-Governing territory is in direct violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Today around 300 people in the Moroccan-controlled areas are Catholic (mostly of Spanish origin), being able to attend the St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral in El Aaiún and the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Dakhla.
[23] Hassaniya, a variety of Arabic also spoken in neighbouring countries such as Mauritania, is the common vernacular language of the Sahrawi people.
[25] The SADR acted as a government administration in the Sahrawi refugee camps located in the Tindouf Province of western Algeria.
It is headquartered in Camp Rabouni, south of Tindouf, although some official events have taken place in towns in the Free Zone, including the provisional capitals, first Bir Lehlou until 2008, then Tifariti.
Several foreign aid agencies, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and non-governmental organizations, are continually active in the camps.
A stalemate over the Moroccan proposal led the UN, in an April 2007 "Report of the UN Secretary-General", to ask the parties to enter into direct and unconditional negotiations to reach a mutually accepted political solution.