When Spain relinquished Spanish Sahara, there was no internationally recognized succession of states agreement that defined the terms of the transfer of authority to a new nation-state.

Under international law, the four elements that are involved in succession are 1) a defined territory, with 2) a permanent population, and 3) a government that is 4) capable of entering into agreements with other states.

[15] Beginning in 1963, the United Nations attempted to resolve the issue for Spanish Sahara, focusing on decolonization and the territorial dispute over the area between Mauritania, Morocco, and Spain.

[16] The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2229, issued on 20 December 1966, demanded that Spain consult with the persons inhabiting their territories of Ifni and Spanish Sahara, and the governments of Mauritania and Morocco or other interested parties, and schedule a referendum for the population of those areas to determine the conditions of their decolonization.

[18] The International Court of Justice (ICJ) heard from all parties and on 16 October 1975 ruled that though the area had historical links with Morocco and Mauritania, the ties were insufficient to prove the sovereignty of either country over the territory at the time of the Spanish colonization.

[20][19] On 14 November 1975, Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania signed the Madrid Accords agreeing to establish a cooperative transitional administration over the territory, now to be known as Western Sahara.

[14] But Francisco Franco, Spain's head of state, died the following day[22] and no further legislation was passed concerning processes of decolonization until 4 June 1976, when Royal Decree 2258 was issued.

[14] On 27 February 1976, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was declared by the Polisario Front, a liberation movement for Western Sahara, and a government-in-exile was established in Tindouf, Algeria.

[20][24] The UN General Assembly urged Morocco in Resolution 34/37 of 21 November 1979 to enter into the peace process and allow Sahrawis to hold a referendum for self-determination, but fighting continued until 1988, when both parties agreed to an armistice and UN assistance in resolving the dispute.

In 2018, Moroccan figures showed the population of the areas it controls in Western Sahara to include 485,000 people, of whom only twenty percent are Sahrawi.

[42] Further, Morocco has invested billions of dollars in developing the infrastructure of the territory it controls, fortifying its security with defensive walls and troops, and implementing policies to assimilate the Sahrawi people and moroccanize them.

[45] Though the Polisario Front — the government of SADR — has existed for more than forty years, the Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic does not define how citizenship is acquired or exercised.

As a government-in-exile, the SADR also provides birth certificates, national identity cards, and passports to persons within its jurisdiction of Western Sahara and in the Algerian refugee camps.

Each district was traditionally named after the location to which the inhabitants had originated in Western Sahara, to enable reintegration of the population when independence occurred.

[55] Persons living in the jurisdiction of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, including those in Algerian camps are allowed to participate in their governance, vote, and hold administrators to account.

[56][57] At the local level, individuals are assigned to participate in one of five committees – education, family and legal affairs, health, industry and craftsmanship, and provisioning (distribution networks).

[61] Lack of nationality and statelessness makes persons vulnerable to breaches of their human rights, such as discrimination in their ability to live or work in a particular place, to acquire education or health services, or be protected from abuse such as trafficking.

[62] It can also result in arbitrary treatment with regard to their rights, expulsion from the country, or restrictions of movement, meaning they are unable to leave or re-enter a territory.

[65][66] However, the 1998 procedure was based upon being able to prove that the applicant could not leave Western Sahara between 1975 and 1976 and thus were unable to comply with the requirements of the 1976 Royal Decree to apply in Spain.

The court ruled that as Law 40 of 1975 required decolonization, the area was not a province but a colony and as such under the Spanish Civil Code nationality could not be obtained unless a child was born in Spain.