Justice and Reconciliation Commission looks into fate of forced disappearance victims
Morocco, Politics, 2/19/2005

Driss benzekri, President of the Justice and Reconciliation Commission (IER) announced Friday that the Commission is currently trying to establish the fate of the victims of forced disappearances, and will inform the public opinion on the results of its probe.

The body was set up by the authorities in January 2004 to examine cases of disappearance and arbitrary detention which occurred between 1956 and 1999, and to close the file on past human rights violations.

Speaking at a seminar on political trials from 1956 to 1999, Benzekri said the Commission is preparing exhaustive judicial studies in order to come out with recommendations and proposals that will be the basis of a series of laws aiming to consolidate the rule of law and guarantee that human rights violations will not occur again.

He added that the Commission will gather the opinions of the civil society and the public opinion to reach concrete recommendations for reform, and to redress the damages committed in the past.

IER member, Abdelaziz Bennani, said the aim is to identify violations and dysfunctions that occurred on trials, organized from 1956 to 1999, with regard to the protection of liberty and security of persons, and respect of norms of equitable trials.

He said the seminar is a constructive meeting because for the first time a debate on the penal policy is opened to the different components of the civil society, and important justice issues are evoked in transparency.

The IER member voiced conviction that the recommendations of the Commission will energize the ongoing process of reforms of justice.

IER will also organize Tuesday a meeting on "violence as a strategy of political management." It will discuss the role political and cultural elites play to face this phenomenon, and will examine means to guarantee that violence will be prevented from re-appearing in the future.

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