Morocco's king meets UN high commissioner for human rights
Morocco-UN, Politics, 4/17/2000

King Mohammed VI, who was accompanied by Prince Moulay Rachid, received in Rabat Saturday the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson.

The U.N high commissioner was visiting Morocco to attend the closing session of the 5th international forum of national institutions in charge of human rights promotion and protection held in Rabat.

She also attended the dedication ceremony in Rabat of a center for human rights documentation, information and training. The center will provide training to persons in charge of law enforcement and to ngos members.

The UN high commissioner also held meetings with Moroccan Premier Abderrahmane Youssoufi and with members of the Moroccan Human Rights Advisory Council (CCDH).

The meeting with Youssoufi covered the progress scored by Morocco in matters of human rights defense and promotion as well as latest developments on the Arab and African scenes.

Several other issues related to immigration, the situation of women and means of upgrading cooperation between Morocco and the UN human rights body were discussed.

During the meeting Robinson voiced interest for the positive evolution of human rights in the kingdom and lauded initiatives to promote human rights.

She stressed the need to upgrade women's rights and to clearly identify these rights, pointing out that the international community is following the evolution of the issue in Morocco.

She also called for energizing the role of the CCDH and for granting it more autonomy so that it becomes a forum shared by authorities, associations and human rights advocates. The autonomy and independence of human rights protection institutions consolidate their credibility.

Morocco's contribution to the preparation of the world conference on racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance --to be held in South Africa in the course of year 2001-- was also brought up.

Youssoufi underlined in this regard the importance of the agreement on the protection of the rights of immigrants who are facing social, economic and cultural racism and the need to ratify the accord.

Robinson left Morocco Sunday.

Previous Stories:
  Morocco scored remarkable human rights progress, Robinson   (4/15/2000)
  Fifth international human rights workshop opens in Rabat   (4/13/2000)
  Mary Robinson starts Friday official visit to Morocco   (4/13/2000)

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