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- Ensure the implementation of reforms, recommended by the
ERC or otherwise, that contribute to ending impunity for grave human
rights abuses past and present, that fulfill the rights of victims, and
that safeguard against a repetition of grave abuses of the past.
- Direct a high-level public office to monitor and evaluate,
in a public and ongoing fashion, the states implementation of the
recommendations made by the ERC; or create a new body with this
responsibility.
- Commit to providing a public response to each of the ERCs
recommendations, specifying a plan and timetable for compliance, or an
explanation why the government does not intend to comply.
- Bring to justice those individuals identified by the ERC
as having committed grave human rights violations, where sufficient
evidence exists to bring them to trial, and ensure that they are provided
with a fair trial where their rights are protected. The king, who is both
the recipient of the ERCs complete report and head of Moroccos Supreme Council of the Magistrature, has a special responsibility in this regard. He
should ensure that all evidentiary material collected by the ERC is turned
over to judicial authorities, in contemplation of bringing charges where
the evidence warrants.
- Refrain from declaring any amnesty or similar measures
that would exempt from prosecution persons implicated in carrying
out disappearances or other grave violations of human rights; any
eventual measures of clemency should come after individual
responsibilities have been established, not before.
- Consider extrajudicial sanctions, such as dismissals from
posts, for public officials against whom solid evidence exists of
participation in grave abuses, where the post they occupy enables them to
continue to violate the human rights of others. Such actions should be
carried out in a fair manner that guarantees the due process rights of the
accused, and without prejudice to their eventual prosecution in a court of
law.
- Examine the issue of statutes of limitations under
Moroccan law, favoring an approach that does not double-penalize the
victims. Authorities could, for example, advocate holding that the period
during which victims did not have an effective remedy under domestic law
does not count toward prescription.
- Declare that any case of disappearance that the ERC has
not fully clarified shall continue to be the subject of investigation
until the fate of the victim is established.
- If there are victims of grave human rights violations whose
applications are rejected by the ERC on the grounds that the types of
violations they suffered fell outside its mandate, ensure that these
victims receive the same consideration, in terms of reparation, as those
whose cases were accepted by the ERC.
- Publicly remind victims and their beneficiaries of their
continuing right to obtain redress from courts, which has not been
compromised by the existence of the ERC or by their acceptance of
reparations from the ERC.
- Ensure a legal and administrative framework that
preserves, and ensures easy public access to, the archival material
generated by the ERC, except that which should legitimately remain
classified.
- Acknowledge that grave human rights abuses in the period
under study by the ERC were systematic and ordered at the highest levels
of the state, and offer official statements of regret to the victims and
their families.
- Strengthen Moroccos commitment to international treaties
by continuing to implement the pledge made by Prime Minister Driss Jettou
to withdraw Moroccos reservations to those treaties. It should lift its
reservation to Article 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC), recognize the competence of the Committee against Torture under
Article 20 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), and join the optional protocol to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Morocco should also withdraw its substantial reservations to the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a step that the
prime minister said would be studied. It should also ratify the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court, which Morocco signed in 2000.
- Disclose publicly the extent to which the ERC received the
necessary cooperation of past and present officials in its investigations,
cooperation being measured in terms of the provision of oral testimony,
documents (including medical-legal records and existing court files), and
other items of evidence; and disclose the impact of any non-cooperation on
the commissions task of providing a full and truthful account of the
period under its consideration.
- Alert the appropriate public authorities if it encounters
any evidence of the destruction of, or tampering with, public records or
other evidentiary materials, and ensure that evidence of such activity is
made public at an appropriate time.
- Publicly reaffirm the need for criminal accountability for
grave abuses, even if the commission itself is prevented from naming
individual perpetrators.
- Support the submission to Moroccos judiciary of all
evidence collected by the ERC that might contribute to bringing to justice
perpetrators of grave abuses of the past, or that might help victims or
their beneficiaries to obtain justice in the courts for past abuses.
- Make public, to the fullest extent possible, the
testimonies and information collected by the ERC from former and current
agents of the state.
- Urge that any disappearances not successfully elucidated
by the commission remain the subject of ongoing investigation until the
fate of the missing person is fully clarified, and that no amnesty or
statute of limitations apply to those implicated in disappearances or
other grievous human rights abuses.
- In recommending measures to prevent the recurrence of
grave abuses and to strengthen the rule of law, stress the importance of
reforming Moroccos justice system, so that judges reliably conduct
independent and thorough inquiries, bring charges when warranted, and
render decisions that are just, whether in cases involving recent offenses
or concerning abuses of the past, and whether the defendants are ordinary
citizens or state agents.
- In light of the contested nature of events in the Western
Sahara, the tighter security conditions in that region, and the large
number of cases emanating from there, ensure that in the Commissions
final report, reparation policies, and recommendations, the human rights
violations and the victims in this region receive consideration that is
equal to that accorded to those of other regions.
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