Morocco scored significant progress in human rights, despite some excesses, league

Human rights in Morocco have scored during the nineties, a significant progress, marked by the initiatives made lately by King Mohammed VI in this field and that have positively impacted the Moroccan people and the international public opinion, said the Moroccan league for Human Rights Defense (LMDH) in its annual report.

In the report made public on the occasion of the commemoration of the 52nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the league notes however "excesses that harm from time to time the dignity and rights of some citizens."

The league outlines that the economic crisis impacted on various layers of the society, mainly the poor, and induced several protest movements and sit-ins on the part of workers and civil servants, as well as demonstrations by unemployed graduates, disabled and blind persons. It notes that the resort to violence to quell the demonstrations "constitutes an abuse of power and a violation of the right to stage peaceful demonstrations."

Touching on the freedom of speech, the league deems that the situation "is not reassuring" and launched an urgent call "to elaborate a new press law" in a bid "to enlarge the scope of freedom, abolish the prison sentences and replace them by fines and standardize sentences."

The league notes further that democratic transition is dependent on the government's will to promote citizens' economic and social rights on and secure the independence and equity of justice, insisting on the role of the civil society and political parties in rooting democratic culture in a comprehensive and sustained development process.

It urged the government to set up the necessary mechanisms to guarantee credibility and transparency to coming elections through the adoption of a new electoral code and revision of the warding. It likewise called the political parties to fulfill their mission in supervising the society and fostering awareness to democratic values, underlining that "political and cultural underdevelopment," illiteracy and ignorance are at the origin of democratic crisis.

The league advocated that the issue of women be handled in the frame of the authentic teachings of Islam, guaranteeing to women a privilege statute and all their political, economic, social and cultural rights, and called for a larger representation of women within civil society associations, political parties and international organizations.

At the international level, the league vehemently condemned the Israeli aggressions against the unarmed Palestinian people and hailed the historic intifadah (uprising) of Al-Aqsa which requires further backing on the part of all Arab countries.