Death Penalty: Ripening Debate in Society
At the end of the seminar on the death penalty held in Rabat, the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH) and the association of “Ensemble contre la peine de mort” organized a press conference for the presentation of the conclusions of this seminar.
The seminar, held on October 11 – 12, 2009, aimed to set the stage for a public debate, scientific, objective and calm on the issue of the death penalty in Morocco, according to several approaches: legal, religious, sociological and human rights.
The meeting, the first one of its kind, was attended by CCDH members, representatives of the government departments concerned, parliamentarians, judges, lawyers, academics, ulemas (Muslim scholars), NGOs, media and a host of national and international experts in the field.
At the press conference, the CCDH President, said that the work of the CCDH on the question of the death penalty fell within the scope of a comprehensive approach to work on the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER). Indeed, the gradual abolition of the death penalty and ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are recommendations issued by the IER, on which the CCDH worked by studying the draft penal code developed by the Government in the light of international conventions of human rights according to a new view of criminal policy. In this regard, the CCDH completed the review of the Penal Code and is in the process of finalizing the work on the code of criminal procedure. This work will be submitted to the next plenary session of the CCDH.
Mr. Herzenni recalled that Morocco, who was a de facto abolitionist country and who has not executed since 1993, needed to enhance the debate launched at the seminar on the death penalty in order to reach a consensus in society on this issue.