King Mohammed chairs ministers' council on family code reform
Morocco, Politics, 12/15/2003

Morocco's King Mohammed VI chaired this Friday at the Royal Palace in Marrakech a ministers council that was broadly devoted to the family code reform announced by the sovereign on October 10.

At the end of the meeting, Hassan Aourid, spokesman of the Royal Palace, said the sovereign recalled at the Council the importance of the amendments of the family code stressing that it will consolidate law, improve women conditions and establish an egalitarian and fair society.

Aourid said the sovereign highlighted that the reform proposals contain moves to endow the judicial power with executive tools through the creation of family-specialized sections in Moroccan courts.

The spokesman recalled that the reform is the illustration of the king's vision as it was unveiled since he ascended to the throne. He said this vision seeks to promote the situation of women, lift the injustice inflicted upon them and ward off any dissension within the Moroccan society.

Aourid also recalled that this major reform, that concerns all the components of the Moroccan family, is based upon the nation's constant principles as they are provided for in the constitution that stipulates that the state's religion is Islam, that HM the King is Amir Al Muminine (commander of the faithful), supreme representative of the nation, the guarantor of the respect of Islam and of the constitution and the protector of human rights and civil liberties.

Aourid added that the sovereign sees to the equality between men and women as regards rights and duties as it is stipulated in the Moroccan constitution that provides for attachment to the universally recognized human rights.

He pointed out that the reform initiated by the sovereign was based on an approach that favored participation of and consultation with various intellectual trends and social sensibilities.

In this context, the spokesman recalled that the sovereign, after receiving various women figures on March 5, 2001 and listening to their requests, took the initiative to set up on April 27, 2001 the royal consultative commission for the Mudawana (family code) reform that musters women and men who are specialists of Fiqh (Islamic texts interpretation), law, sociology and medicine. The sovereign was also keen to spell out the outlines of the project in his speech, on October 10, 2003, at the opening of the parliament legislative year, highlighting the references and constant principles on which the project was founded, namely:

- Not to make licit what God has forbidden nor forbid what God has made lawful,

- adherence to the objectives of Islam that seeks to promote Man, justice, equality and understanding,

- adherence to the unity of the Malekite rite and Ijtihad (jurisprudence) in order to craft a modern Mudawana that is consistent with the teachings of our sacred religion.

- The family law should not be considered as a legislation devised for women only, but as a text designed for the whole family, father, mother and children and see to it that it contributes to lifting the injustice that women endure, in addition to protecting children's rights and safeguarding men's dignity.

Based on the democratic foundations of the modernist project that the sovereign is so keen to foster and in accordance with the respect that the king has for the parliamentary institution, the king was also keen to refer the project to the parliament.

In order to promote an appropriate atmosphere for a smooth enforcement of the law provisions, the sovereign has addressed a letter to the justice minister stressing that supporting and enforcing the reform project is linked to the creation of a fair, modern and efficient family jurisdiction endowed with the human, material and procedural means entitling it to gather conditions of equity and impartiality, rule on cases falling under its prerogatives and enforce its decisions with the required swiftness, calling for providing the soonest these courts with adequate offices within Morocco's various tribunals.

Given the sovereign's concern to consolidate the democratic process through efficient economic institutions, he also approved two draft laws, dealing with the amendments of the statute of Bank Al-Maghrib (central bank) in order to reinforce its autonomy and prerogatives and empower it to adequately fulfill its mission in monetary policy. The second draft law defines modern and efficient mechanisms for Bank Al Maghrib to conduct its control mission over credit institutions and similar bodies and ensure their upgrading so that they meet international standards in force in similar companies in developed countries. (MAP)SH

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