Atoning for the Past | The Majalla. The genuine effort towards restorative justice in Morocco Morocco has implemented a pioneering restorative justice program that aims to compensate, both financially and psychologically, the victims of prior human rights abuses. Although there is still much work to be done, ground-breaking efforts are beginning to bear fruit. This post has already been read 163 times! From left to right, Mohamed Ghallol, Ahmed Marzouki, Hocine Assayad and Abdellah Agaou pose in Rabat in October 2000. They all spent more than 20 years in the Moroccan jail system without any trial Rarely heard about both in the Arab world and more generally, Morocco has embarked on an exceptional program of restorative justice that is well funded by the government and highly unusual in the extent of its reach, both in terms of the number of individuals to whom it has rendered assistance and the substantial nature of compensation and rehabilitation services provided by the government.
Noam Schimmel More Posts. Morocco: A 'Democratic Moment'? During the last years of his reign, King Hassan II initiated a modest and controlled reform process intended to ease the transition of power by attempting to hand the reigns over safely to the crown prince at the time, nowadays King Mohamed VI. To buttress his legitimacy and distance himself from the authoritarian style of his late father, King Mohamed VI ushered in an era of diffident political reforms that—under popular pressure from within and the progression of Arab revolts from without—culminated in a new constitution upon which Moroccans were invited to vote upon by referendum held hastily two weeks after. It was an attempt granted to diffuse the tense situation.
While Morocco’s monarch could be credited for having reacted swiftly to the legitimate demands of his subjects, unlike other regrettable examples in the region, a sizeable proportion of the population still feels that these reforms fall short of responding to their legitimate demands. Ezzedine Errousi, a Moroccan Prisoner of Conscience, Released: 134 Days on Hunger Strike.
On 1 December 2011, Ezzedine Errousi, a Moroccan student from the city of Taza, was taking part in a student union protest on the Taza University campus. The students staged a peaceful protest against the deplorable state of the university. The university sent the local authorities to disperse the protest. Authorities then came on campus, arrested Errousi, stripped, and dragged him through the local souk to prison. He was charged with assaulting a police officer and sentenced to five months in prison, in addition to a fine. During his time in prison, his family reported that Errousi was subject to abuse and torture. His hands were broken and went untreated for twenty days. In protest against the nature of his detainment, Errousi began a 134-day long hunger strike that lasted until the day he was released on 1 May 2012. Below is his first public statement since his release and a link to an interview with his sister: Morocco: Drop Charges Against Detained Rapper.
(Casablanca) – Moroccan authorities should drop charges and release a rapper who has spent three weeks in pretrial detention on charges that he insulted the police in his songs and a video set to his music, Human Rights Watch said today. Police arrested Mouad Belghouat, known as “al-Haqed” (the sullen one), on March 29, 2012, because of a YouTube video with a photo of a policeman whose head has been replaced with a donkey’s. The lyrics denounce police corruption. On April 16, the Casablanca Court of First Instance, located in Aïn Sbaâ, postponed the start of Belghouat’s trial for the second time. The judge, as he had done previously, rejected defense motions to grant the defendant pretrial release. “This case is about freedom of expression pure and simple,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
On July 1, 2011, Moroccans voted in a referendum to approve a constitution proposed by King Mohammed VI that affirms freedom of expression. Morocco: Prison for Rapper Who Criticized Police. (Rabat, May 12, 2012) – The sentencing of a rapper on May 11, 2012 to one year in prison for “insulting the police” shows the gap between the strong free-expression language in Morocco’s 2011 constitution and the continuing intolerance for those who criticize state institutions. The sentence was handed down one week before the opening of the international Mawazine music festival in Rabat, which is held under the patronage of King Mohammed VI.
Mouad Belghouat, better known as “al-Haqed” (the sullen one), has been in pretrial custody since March 29 because of his rap song “Kilab ed-Dowla” (Dogs of the State), which denounces police corruption, and a YouTube video set to the song. “Morocco hosts one famous international music festival after another each spring, but meanwhile it imprisons one of its own singers solely because of lyrics and images that displease the authorities,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Status of Women in 'Reformist' Morocco. Just three years ago, a teenager from Western Sahara (which has long been occupied by Morocco) left a human rights meeting, at which point she was accosted, as she reveals in a YouTube video, by six plainclothes Moroccan policemen. They pushed her into a waiting vehicle, blindfolded, and handcuffed her. And then they raped and sodomized her with truncheons, in the presence of high ranking Moroccan officers.
Once that was done, they told her she would be killed if she decided to talk about her treatment at their hands. Several months later, on August 27th, yet another teenage human rights activist, Nguia el-Haouassi, found herself abducted by Moroccan police, stripped naked, and subjected to what was called “physical and psychological torture.” Most notably, according to the victim, she was told by police that if she discussed what had occurred while in custody, the videotape of her naked body would be downloaded onto the Internet, and she would be raped. Possibly not. "Violating Sacred Values" in Morocco: Free Speech with an Exception. A simple caricature by a cartoonist and a four-minute video featuring an activist expressing his dissent are arguably some of today’s most common mediums for political expression. In post-constitutional reform and post–parliamentary-election Morocco, sharing a political cartoon and criticizing the monarchy in a video is a crime, met with jail time.
While reforms have been implemented for months, vague language has allowed Mohammed VI’s regime to selectively interpret and enforce its reforms whenever the monarchical institution is seen to be threatened. Morocco’s previous constitution contained many controversial articles that were either lost or split in the 2011 constitution. Article 23 of the previous constitution stated, “The person of the King shall be sacred and inviolable.” In the new constitution, the word “sacred” no longer appears in reference to the king. However, article 46 states, “The person of the King is inviolable and respect is owed to him.” Young Women Demanding Justice and Dignity: By All Means Necessary. Amina Filali was a young Moroccan girl who was raped at the age of 15 then forced to marry her rapist. She was battered, bruised, and starved until she committed suicide in March 2012. She was 16 years old. Contributing to Amina’s suicide are her rapist turned husband, article 475 of the Moroccan penal code that absolves an aggressor of his crime once he consents to marrying his rape victim, the judge who called for a mediation instead of a prosecution against the offender, the police, and the religious clerics who have given their blessings to the rapist.
Amina’s suicide exposes, once again, an entirely flawed legal system and deeply distorted patriarchal honor code that decriminalizes the oppressor and condemns the victim. Behind her death is the lethal combination of state sanctioned gender violence, legal blindness, and societal silence. Article 475 of the Moroccan Penal code states: According to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Amina is a child. Notes from Western Sahara: An Interview with Fatma El-Mehdi. As the Arab Spring spread across several countries in the Middle East and North Africa, American philosopher Noam Chomsky argued that it did not originate in Tunisia, as is commonly understood.
“In fact, the current wave of protests actually began last November in Western Sahara, which is under Moroccan rule, after a brutal invasion and occupation,” Chomsky stated. “The Moroccan forces came in, carried out - destroyed tent cities, a lot of killed and wounded and so on. And then it spread.” The Gdeim Izik protests started in October 2010 when approximately five thousand Saharawi citizens set up temporary “Camps of Justice” to protest the Moroccan occupation and abuses, and peacefully assert independence. The number soon rose to 15,000 and the United Nations estimated that, at its peak, the camp may have held up to 6,600 tents.
[Photo by Kirby Gookin.] One of the lesser-known independence movements in the world, Western Sahara experienced Spanish colonization in the late 19th century. The World Factbook. ShowIntroduction :: MOROCCO Panel - Collapsed In 788, about a century after the Arab conquest of North Africa, a series of Moroccan Muslim dynasties began to rule in Morocco.
In the 16th century, the Sa'adi monarchy, particularly under Ahmad al-MANSUR (1578-1603), repelled foreign invaders and inaugurated a golden age. The Alaouite Dynasty, to which the current Moroccan royal family belongs, dates from the 17th century. In 1860, Spain occupied northern Morocco and ushered in a half century of trade rivalry among European powers that saw Morocco's sovereignty steadily erode; in 1912, the French imposed a protectorate over the country. A protracted independence struggle with France ended successfully in 1956. The internationalized city of Tangier and most Spanish possessions were turned over to the new country that same year. Sultan MOHAMMED V, the current monarch's grandfather, organized the new state as a constitutional monarchy and in 1957 assumed the title of king.
Morocco. Skip to main content World Malaria 2014 Access Search Advanced search Navigation Language عربي 中文 English Français Русский Español Countries Morocco Map This map is an approximation of actual country borders. Statistics Contact information Monsieur le Représentant de l'OMS Souteyrand, Mr Yves Boîte postale 812 10000 - Rabat, Méchouar, Morocco Telephone: +212 537 632259 Facsimile: +212 537 632209 wromor@mor.emro.who.int Country Office web site Regional Office web site Health profile WHO collaboration Mortality and burden of disease Nutrition Risk factors Features Morocco takes a stride forward for mothers and children 29 January 2014 You are here: Quick Links Sitemap Help and Services WHO Regional Offices loading. A Monarchical Affair: From Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula. When protests in North Africa ousted dictators and began spreading elsewhere in the region, decades-old alliances between the Arab monarchies were strengthened with the common interest of staying in power at all costs.
While Morocco’s political and economic ties have historically been predominantly directed toward European markets, Morocco has recently oriented its outlook toward the East, finding common ground with the monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula. Morocco’s relationship with the monarchies in the Gulf is nothing new. When King Hassan II of Morocco prioritized the acquisition of the Western Saharan territory as the principal objective of his reign, Saudi Arabia provided an annual allowance of one hundred million dollars throughout the 1980s.
The amount was specifically intended for “anti-Polisario activities.” Hassan II returned the favor in 1990 when he sent over one thousand troops to the Saudi-Iraqi border during the Gulf War. A Year After: The February 20 Protest Movement in Morocco. On the one-year anniversary of the February 20 protest movement in Morocco, (henceforth referred to as Feb. 20), the kingdom boasts relatively meager political progress. Despite the much-vaunted reforms and constitutional changes, Morocco has reinvigorated its state edifice, managed to outmaneuver an inexperienced Feb. 20 protest movement, and engaged in a crackdown on freedom of the press and speech. In the last couple of weeks, the regime has arrested three Moroccans for crimes against his majesty’s person and “defaming Morocco’s sacred values.”
In a country where the monarch is inviolable, the use of cartoons depicting the king is considered an outrage to a symbol of the country. More importantly, a year after the initial mass protests, we need to assess the record of the movement in terms of appeal and success in Morocco. The constitution does not address aspects of direly needed reforms. Kleptocracy and nepotism are endemic in the Moroccan administration and economy. El Haqed: Examining Morocco's Judicial Reform in 2012. On 9 September 2011, Mouad Belghouat, a 24 year old Moroccan rap musician, was passing out fliers to advertize for a demonstration in his impoverished neighborhood outside the cosmopolitan city of Casablanca. On the evening he and his friends were handing out fliers for the upcoming march, Belghouat was approached by another young man, Mohamed Dali, later reported to be a member of the “Alliance of Young Royalists,” who verbally targeted Belghouat, calling him a traitor.
Belghouat himself is a member of the February 20th movement, a coalition of activists that has been organizing demonstrations for over a year in Morocco, calling for greater democratic processes and limits to the king’s power. As Belghouat’s story goes, the men exchanged words only. However, according to Dali, Belghouat physically attacked him from behind, causing him to sustain a head injury. The same evening, Belghouat received a call from the police stating that Dali was pressing charges against him. The Reforms.