Amnesty International welcomes Morocco's draft law on torture
Morocco, Politics, 2/7/2005

Amnesty International welcomed the initiative of the Moroccan justice ministry to draft a bill on torture.

Chairman of AI-Morocco section, Hassan Sektaoui, told Moroccan "Bayane Al Yaoum" daily his organization appreciates the bill that criminalizes torture and has put forward its comments.

The draft, adopted last December by the government, aims at criminalizing torture and proposes a comprehensive definition of this crime in accordance with the International Convention Against torture.

The draft law which was announced months ago was welcomed by Moroccan and foreign human rights organizations including the US-based Human Rights Watch which praised, in its latest report published in October, Morocco's "impressive strides in human rights over the last fifteen years."

Sektaoui noted that everybody agrees that torture contradicts the most basic values of societies adhering to the preeminence of law, human rights and civil freedoms.

He went on that warding off torture hinges on the creation of independent prevention mechanisms and holding field visits to detention locations.

He also highlighted the frank and constructive dialogue between the London-based human rights-defense group and Moroccan authorities which are increasingly open to the mission, opinion and role of AI.

In a release published in London last month, Amnesty International has welcomed "greater openness (in Morocco) on human rights, including in public debates about the legacy of past violations, and encouraging signs of progress towards greater respect for the rule of law."

AI said, following a visit to Morocco by a delegation "we have been impressed by the increasing openness and seriousness with which human rights issues are being tackled at many levels, both within civil society and the authorities."

Senior director at the London-based human rights group Claudio Cordone also hoped that "this climate will encourage the right approach to current and past human rights concerns."

The AI release points out that Morocco's justice minister, Mohamed Bouzoubaa, "assured Amnesty International that investigations had recently been opened into several allegations of torture raised by the organization." He also "shared the latest initiatives by the government to combat torture, including a new draft law reflecting international standards."

Sektaoui further said his organization supports the public hearings into past human rights violations, held by the Justice and Reconciliation Commission (IER). The body, set up in January 2004, to seek out of court settlement of most serious human rights violations committed between 1956 and 1999, has held four sessions of hearings.

Amnesty International had hailed the holding of public hearings as "unprecedented in Morocco and the Arab world."

"These are essential components of any process which aims at establishing the truth about past human rights violations," AI says.

Previous Stories:
  Rkia Ahabou: I did not have means to cure my son who died because of torture   (2/4/2005)
  Former detainee Boudrara: when an individual is tortured it is all the society that is harmed in its dignity and freedom   (2/1/2005)
  Government passes draft law criminalizing torture   (12/29/2004)

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