In one form or another the question of the status of this territory has been reviewed by the General Assembly each year since 1964. While it was a colony of Spain, the Assembly pressured Spain to grant early independence to Spanish Sahara. The Assembly’s main instrument was its special committee created to monitor progress toward independence in compliance with its sweeping resolution of 1960 entitled Declartion on the Granting of Independence to colonial Countries and Peoples. After 1974 this same declaration continued as a major basis for pressure on Morocco and other interested parties to implement the holding of a general and free self-determination referendum in Western Sahara. An advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in 1975 supported the Assembly position by declaring that neither Morocco and Mauritania had any legitimate prior claims to sovereignty over the territory. Therefore, the principle of self-determination should be applied and implemented.