CCDH 32th Ordinary Session

The proceedings of the 32nd session of the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH), held on February 28, 2009 in Rabat, revolved around the review of the CCDH 2008 annual report on the situation of human rights in Morocco, the report on monitoring the implementation of the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) and a draft guide for visits to places of detention.

At the opening of this session, which coincides with the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the CCDH President, Mr. Ahmed Herzenni, announced that a debate would be open soon on the methodology of drawing up the annual report as one of the CCDH main tasks and essential means to assess public policies as regards human rights.

Referring to the revision of the penal law, which has been assigned to a group of experts, Mr. Herzenni said, in his opening statement read by the CCDH Secretary-General, Mr. Mahjoub El Haiba, that this work would be completed during March, noting that this review fell within the scope of the efforts to modernize the national penal policy and to bring its provisions into compliance with international human rights standards.

This action, he said, aimed essentially to continue the implementation of the IER recommendations on the criminalization of gross violations of human rights and the upgrading of the Moroccan penal legislation, insisting on the continuation of the harmonization of all national criminal laws with universal standards.

Also, Mr. Herzenni highlighted the CCDH efforts to develop methods of monitoring the violations and handling complaints. In this regard, a guide of visits to prisons and places of detention has been developed on the basis of experience accumulated by the CCDH and international bodies in this field.

He also said that a significant evolution had been made in the drafting of the national charter of rights and duties of the citizen, noting that an internal debate on this version would be open shortly.

Regarding the National Action Plan on Democracy and Human Rights, he said that the CCDH efforts set the stage for the establishment of an ad hoc committee, in collaboration with the government. He also noted that measures had been taken for the application of the provisions of the Citizen Platform for the Promotion of the Human Rights Culture. The CCDH recommended that the ad hoc committee should work on building bridges between these two projects in the field of human rights, he said.

He also stated that the arbitration decisions issued by the IER have been implemented, with the exception of a few pending cases which remained unresolved against the will of the CCDH, which continued the implementation of the recommendations relating to all forms of reparation, in coordination with the parties concerned.

Mr. Herzenni said that a remarkable progress had been made as regards the implementation of the IER recommendations on community reparation, either at the institutional level or in terms of the programs to be achieved in the regions concerned. The CCDH, he added, was conducting consultations with the relevant bodies on the IER recommendations on security governance and options of accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.

At the international and multilateral level, Mr. Herzenni said that the CCDH was preparing to host in next October the seventh conference of African national human rights institutions. He pointed out that the CCDH would chair the network of these institutions at the end of this conference. Also, the CCDH will participate in March in the fifth meeting of the Arab national human rights institutions and the annual meeting of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.