• Human Rights in Morocco
    Human rights conditions were decidedly mixed in Morocco, as a 2011 constitution containing strong human rights provisions did not translate into improved practices. While Moroccans were able to exercise their right to protest in the streets, the police often dispersed them violently. Protest leaders and dissidents risked imprisonment after unfair trials. The country acquired its first Islamist prime minister. In July, the justice minister, Moustapha Ramid, a well-known human rights lawyer, declared that Morocco’s 65,000 prisoners included no “prisoners of opinion,” a statement contradicted by the incarceration of rapper al-Haqed and student Abdessamad Haydour for their peaceful speech.
  • Men convicted and imprisoned by Moroccan courts after unfair trials that relied on their contested police statements
    © 2013 Human Rights Watch
    Morocco/Western Sahara: Dubious Confessions, Tainted Trials
    Morocco’s courts are convicting defendants based on confessions they claim were obtained through torture or falsified by police, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The country’s judicial reform agenda needs to include stronger safeguards to ensure that courts discard as evidence any statement made to the police under torture or ill-treatment.
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Morocco/Western Sahara

  • Morocco’s Fast Track to Guilty
    Jun 21, 2013
    The courts can be reformed in countless ways but fair trials are possible only when the judiciary asserts its oversight over the police and tempers its readiness to accept contested statements into evidence.
  • Morocco/Western Sahara: Dubious Confessions, Tainted Trials
    Jun 21, 2013
    Morocco’s courts are convicting defendants based on confessions they claim were obtained through torture or falsified by police, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The country’s judicial reform agenda needs to include stronger safeguards to ensure that courts discard as evidence any statement made to the police under torture or ill-treatment.
  • UN/Western Sahara: Give Peacekeepers a Human Rights Mandate
    Apr 17, 2013
    United Nations Security Council members should task the United Nations with monitoring human rights violations in Western Sahara and in the refugee camps around Tindouf, in Algeria, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to all 15 Security Council member countries.
  • Letter to UN Security Council on Western Sahara
    Apr 17, 2013

    Human Rights Watch urges the Security Council, when it votes on renewing the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) this month, to extend the mandate to incorporate human rights monitoring in Western Sahara and in the Polisario Front-run refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria.

  • Morocco: French President Should Raise Rights Issues
    Apr 2, 2013
    President François Hollande of France should press for further human rights reforms in Morocco during his first state visit to this longtime French ally. Hollande is expected to meet with King Mohammed VI in Rabat and address the parliament while in the country on April 3 and 4, 2013. Several French ministers are scheduled to accompany the president, including Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Najat Vallaud Belkacem, the minister of women’s rights and government spokesperson.
  • Morocco: Tainted Trial of Sahrawi Civilians
    Apr 1, 2013
    A Moroccan military court has sentenced 25 Sahrawis to prison, including nine to life sentences, without looking into their allegations that their confessions were extracted under torture and other forms of coerciony. The defendants include several advocates of human rights and independence for Western Sahara. The confessions were apparently the primary, if not the only, evidence against them, as the court’s written judgment, released the week of March 18, 2013, makes clear.
  • Morocco/Western Sahara: Repression Belies Reform Pledges
    Jan 31, 2013
    Moroccans still await tangible improvements in human rights a year after the adoption of a progressive new constitution and the election of an Islamist-led parliament and government, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013.
  • A year of progress in eliminating violence against women
    Nov 24, 2012
    On November 25 every year, a grim accounting takes place: the world takes stock of violence against women, the toll it takes, and progress toward eliminating it. The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women has been commemorated on November 25 for more than three decades. It’s a day each year when my colleagues and I focus on the courageous women we have met, the injustices they’ve suffered, and the hope they inspire.
  • A year of progress in eliminating violence against women
    Nov 24, 2012
    “If I looked nice, he hit me,” Ana L., a mother of five in Colombia, told me.
  • Morocco: Abuse of Child Domestic Workers
    Nov 15, 2012
    Girls as young as 8 endure physical abuse and work long hours for little pay as domestic workers in Morocco.
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