 While this is almost unprecedented in the Arab world, the ERC's actual independence from the current administration and its ability to reach culprits in the Moroccan elite, known as the "makhzen", has been seriously disputed.The ERC is not mandated to identify or prosecute discovered human rights offenders and there has been no trials against government employees for their actions during the Years of Lead.The situation in Western Sahara, a territory annexed and occupied by Morocco after the Madrid Accords in the 1970s, has been mentioned by rights groups as especially serious.