ICTJ welcomes start of public hearings for victims of human rights abuses in Morocco
Morocco, Politics, 12/23/2004

Washington, Dec. 22 (MAP)- The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) has welcomed the start Tuesday of public hearings for victims of human rights abuses in Morocco organized by the Justice and Reconciliation Commission (IER).

The IER is the first truth commission to be established in the Middle East and North Africa region and the public hearings will provide victims with the "opportunity -- unprecedented in the region --to tell their stories before an official body," said the New York-based ICTJ in a release, recalling that this truth-seeking process is "focusing on disappearances and arbitrary detentions perpetrated against Moroccan citizens from 1956 until 1999."

"The impact of these hearings, televised live across Morocco, will be enormous, not only in the country but throughout the region," said Hanny Megally, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the ICTJ.

"It is almost unheard of in this part of the world for victims to be given an official platform to relate their experiences of abuse," added Megally, noting that "Morocco should be praised for breaking new ground in its efforts to deal with past human rights violations."

ICTJ recalled that hearings will extend over a period of at least 10 weeks and will be held in the capital, Rabat, as well as in Al Hoceima, Casablanca, Errachidia, Figuig, Fes, Khenifra, Smara, Tantan and Tetouan.

The Center explained that the individuals who will relate their experiences "have been selected according to the types of violations committed, regional representation, historic events, age, gender and location of detention centers."

The IER will also organize 12 thematic hearings aimed at opening public debate on the legal, historical and political contexts surrounding the violations, it went on.

The hearings, noted ICTJ, are the latest development in an official process that started on January 7, 2004 with the establishment of the Commission by King Mohamed VI, underlining that "efforts to move away from state policies of forcibly disappearing or arbitrarily detaining opponents, began in early 1990" with establishing "human rights institutions, reforming legislation, releasing political prisoners, and paying more than $100 million in compensation to nearly 3,700 victims and their families."

The Center points out that it has "worked closely with the Moroccan Commission in the period leading up to its establishment. Hearings, it underlined, are an important step in the construction of a new relationship between a state and its citizens, though they do not only affect these two sectors.

"Through public hearings, society as a whole can participate in the important debate about its own past, the violations that were committed in its name, the origins and causes of such violations, and the safeguards that must be put in place to prevent the repetition of such abuses," it said.

After the first session of public hearings that included six testimonies, the second session is organized on Wednesday with six new testimonies.

Previous Stories:
  Public hearings into past human rights breaches start in Morocco   (12/22/2004)
  Public hearings of human rights abuses victims, braced to initiate reconciliation in Morocco   (12/21/2004)
  FIDH welcomes public hearings into human rights abuses in Morocco   (12/20/2004)

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