CORCAS
| المجلس الملكي الاستشاري للشؤون الصحراوية | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters |
Rabat 
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| Agency executives |
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| Website | http://www.corcas.com |
The Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (Arabic: المجلس الملكي الاستشاري للشؤون الصحراوية) (CORCAS, from the French abbreviation of Conseil royal consultatif pour les affaires sahariennes) is an advisory committee to the Moroccan government on the Western Sahara. It was devised by King of Morocco, Hassan II in the 1970s, but allowed to lapse. It was re-established by his son, Mohammed VI in early 2006, after a new autonomy plan was devised to replace the United Nations' Baker Plan. The autonomy plan is opposed by the Polisario Front, which demands that the United Nations resolutions calling for a referendum be implemented.
The CORCAS is intended as a consultative body for proposals related to what Morocco calls its Southern Provinces, but also to defend the kingdom's annexation of Western Sahara in the media and abroad. The Council is also intended to facilitate dialogue with the Sahrawi in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria.
The 141 members of CORCAS are Moroccan and Sahrawi political and traditional (tribal) notables (sheikhs), representatives for women and youth groups and civic society officials. The members are appointed by the Moroccan government and support the Moroccan claims on Western Sahara. Of these members 14 (10%) are women . Notably, the father of the late Polisario Front leader Mohamed Abdelaziz is a member of the CORCAS.
Its chairman, Khalihenna Ould Errachid, is a former leader of the Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui (PUNS), a now-defunct political party operated by the Spanish colonial government to rally support for its rule in the Spanish Sahara in the 1970s. After the departure of the Spanish in 1975, which caused the dissolution of the PUNS, Khalihenna Ould Errachid became a defender of Morocco's annexation of the former colony, and a figurehead for the Moroccan government's rule in the Western Sahara.
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