Moroccan new family code cited among positive evolutions in UNDP Arab world report

Morocco's adoption of a new family law, recognizing equality between men and women and protecting family and children rights is one of the positive liberalization and democratization evolutions in the Arab world, said a UNDP official.

The statement was made by Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, UN assistant-secretary general and director of the UNDP regional bureau for Arab states following a briefing on the UNDP 2004 Arab human development report held on Thursday at the Carnegie international peace Foundation in Washington.

The report says the Moroccan new family code, enacted last January, consecrates gender equality and broadens women's rights in matters of tutorship, marriage and children custody.

The UNDP's 2004 report considers this law as a positive evolution in the Arab world, she told MAP.

Morocco was also credited for enhancing and enlarging the freedom of the civil society associations, compared to other Arab countries, the UN official stressed.

The report was drafted by top Arab scholars, researchers, civil society actors on the basis of their experience, knowledge, data and analysis and represents years of critical study, fact-finding, publications, and activism.

It notes that, except for Morocco and Lebanon, the emergence of civil society organizations proves to be extremely difficult.