Moroccan Human Rights Organization hails positive developments, criticizes missing persons compensation procedures
Morocco, Politics, 11/27/1999

The Moroccan Human Rights Organization (OMDH) hailed in a statement released Friday the positive developments in human rights and criticized the procedures for the compensation of missing persons and their families.

The organization, which hailed the speech delivered by King Mohammed VI on Oct.12 as it outlines a new vision in the concept of authority and the appointment of new officials in the interior ministry, expressed "satisfaction" over recent governmental measures heralding more transparency in the administration and the enforcement of legal texts guaranteeing the exercise of public freedoms.

Regarding the issue of missing persons, the organization said "a decisive stage was covered last August 20 when the Moroccan king, for the first time, spoke openly of the issue of victims of forced disappearances and abusive detention" and the setting up, few days earlier, of an independent commission to study compensations for harms incurred by persons or their families because of these abuses.

However, OMDH notes that the process to grant compensation to these persons is still affected by the way in which it was handled in 1998 and last April by the human rights advisory council (official). In this regard, the organization recalls that a committee comprising top officials from the Interior Ministry had concluded in a report that the issue (of missing persons) is closed while the destiny of a large number of these persons and the conditions in which they disappeared are still unknown.

Noting the membership in the compensation commission of officials from the Interior Ministry, the organization stresses that the commission's statute does not include sufficient guarantees for victims of disappearance.

Previous Stories:
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