While much of the media attention paid to the Human Rights Watch report Morocco's Truth Commission Honoring Past Victims during an Uncertain Present has concentrated on negative aspects, it is important to record that the report also has some positive things to say. While not disregarding the important findings of the report, which will be handed to the King, the following section has received little coverage. At the International Union of Lawyers 49th Congress on August 31 2005, King Mohamed VI pointed to the Commission as "a major achievement for the consolidation of the democratic transition".
Positive steps
Authorities have taken some steps in response to criticism of its recent human rights record. On December 28, 2004, the government council, headed by the prime minister, approved a law defining torture as a criminal offense. Parliament approved the measure on October 21, 2005. This law, which is pending publication in the official bulletin, makes it easier to prosecute acts of torture. It also subjects torturers to long prison terms and stiff fines.
In a related step, Prime Minister Driss Jettou indicated on February 22, 2005, that Morocco would withdraw its declaration relating to the U.N. Convention against Torture, where it stated that it does not recognize the competence of the Committee against Torture. He also said that Morocco would become a party to the optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and withdraw its declaration on Article 14 of the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Jettou also announced plans to lift Morocco’s reservation to Article 14 of the CRC, and its replacement by a declarative explanation, to be followed by an inquiry into the possible lifting of Morocco’s substantial reservations to the CEDAW.18
Some of these pledges had been filled by the time this report went to press. Morocco has recognized the competence of the U.N. Committee against Torture under Article 22 of the CAT but not under Article 20. The former allows the committee to investigate complaints of torture that are submitted by individuals; the latter allows the committee to launch an inquiry upon receiving information that torture is being practiced systematically. Morocco lifted its reservation to Article 14 of the CERD, but not yet its reservations to the CRC or the CEDAW. Nor has it yet joined the optional protocol of the ICCPR.
In contrast to some countries where state agents have carried out “disappearances,” Morocco played a constructive role in the U.N.-sponsored committee that drafted the International Convention on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, approved by the United Nations (U.N.) on September 23, 2005.19 The draft convention, which applies to future cases of disappearance but not past ones, will be opened for ratification by countries once it is approved by the U.N. General Assembly. It requires states to make forced disappearances a crime in their legislation (Article 7) and to pursue the suspected perpetrators, as well as any superiors who ordered or knew about the commission of “disappearances” (Article 6). It enumerates safeguards for those being held in detention (Article 17) and establishes a “right to know” for relatives of persons in detention (Article 24.2).
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