CCDH Holds its 33 Ordinary Session

The Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH) held on July 11, 2009, at its headquarters in Rabat, its 33rd ordinary session, devoted to the discussion of the report on the follow-up of the implementation of the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) and the study on the harmonization of the draft penal code and the draft citizenship charter.

In a statement made at the opening session, the CCDH President, Mr. Ahmed Herzenni, highlighted the achievements made in the follow-up of the IER’s recommendations: reparations, disclosure of truth and institutional reforms to ensure that gross human rights violations will not recur and to combat impunity. Mr. Herzenni said that the CCDH had undertaken its missions in this regards properly.

The work of the CCDH in this regards can by summarized as follows:

Individual reparations

- Decisions has been made in almost all cases;

- Financial compensations have been paid to victims (the rest will be paid to the beneficiaries whose files are flawless);

- Health cover has been provided to all victims of past human rights violations and their rightful claimants;

- Joint work has been undertaken with the government to settle all administrative problems or handle issues of social integration for the cases meeting the conditions and standards adopted.

Communal reparations

- A community reparation program has been adopted in the regions having been affected by the gross human rights violations: Figuig, Errachidia, Ouarzazate, Zagora, Tan Tan, Azilal, Khemisset, Hay Mohammadi (Casablanca), Al Hoceima, Nador, Khenifra;

- The institutional and cooperative framework has been set up and training and awareness sessions has been organized for stakeholders;

- A first batch of more than thirty projects have been launched;

- A call for proposals has been launched to implement the second batch of projects and 230 projects were received.

Disclosure of truth

- 86% of the pending cases have been made clear (the number moved from 66 to 9);

- The public and the families will soon know the final results of the DNA tests on the remains of a significant number of cases.

Institutional and legal reforms, and democracy-building

The CCDH has made proposals as regards the following cases:

- Bringing the national legislation in line with the international one through a thorough study of the draft penal law;

- Justice: a memorandum has been written tackling mainly the issue of the independence of the judiciary;

- Reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women have been withdrawn;

- The International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been ratified;

- Discussion has started on a national mechanism to implement the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture;

- An opinion has been made on the draft law on press and professional journalists;

- A working group composed of experts and university researchers has been set up to monitor the project of the modernization of national archive;

- The development of the Citizen Platform for the Promotion of the Human Rights Culture has started;

- Academic research in current history, promotion of the archives and the preservation of memory has been encouraged.

Mr. Herzenni stated that the CCDH would focus, as of next autumn, on its original missions, namely the promotion and protection of human rights, while giving particular interest to some civil rights, such as the right to be protected from human trafficking, the rights of migrants and refugees, the social, economic, cultural and environmental rights, not forgetting some political rights entailing a renewed legal framing, such as the right and freedom of expression, the right to observe elections and the right to have access to information, etc.

What has proved this trend, according to Mr. Herzenni, is the progress made to draw up the National Action Plan in Human Rights and Democracy in collaboration with the government and civil society and with support from the European Union. This Plan was launched in 2008.

The Plan aims to draw up a global strategy aiming to promote and protect human rights, in such a way as to enable our country to acquire a coherent framework to monitor and coordinate all activities intended for the dissemination, promotion, protection and reinforcement of human rights.

In addition, the process of implementing the provisions of the Citizen Platform will start soon after the Oversight Committee was set up and its members were officially appointed.

Also, the CCDH members addressed at this session the draft citizenship charter, which will be referred to the CCDH partners for more consideration and development. It will be eventually returned to the CCDH for approval. It is worth mentioning that His Majesty King Mohammed VI called on the CCDH, in the Throne Address of July 30, 2003 , to “develop a draft national charter for the rights and obligations of citizens and make necessary proposals to fill in the legal gaps to combat all forms of racism, hatred and violence”.

At this session also, a study on the harmonization of the penal law was presented. The CCDH focused from October 2008 to March 2009 on conducting a study on the harmonization of the draft penal law, developed by the government, with the international human rights standards, through three pillars of penal code: criminalization, sanction and responsibility, with the implementation of the following principles: No one shall be criminalized or sanctioned in the absence of a legal text; the non-retroactivity of laws; equality, legality, equity and personal responsibility in the penal field; and the discussion of the draft penal code in light of such principles and rules in the following fields:

- Concept of public order;

- Humanization of sanctions;

- Personal nature of sanctions;

- Proportionality of judicial measures and degree of responsibility;

- Proportionality of sanctions and criminal acts;

- Personalization of responsibility;

- Harmonization with international conventions and introduction of new crimes, such as genocide, enforced disappearance, racial or gender cleansing.