Human rights in Morocco
Moroccans also feel the pressures of inflation within the country, such as the lack of basic services like healthcare, clean water, and the difficulty of parents to access quality education for their children.
While there have been a handful of reforms that have been generally welcomed internationally, most Moroccans feel this is insufficient, and continue to be unhappy with the trajectory of the country under the policies of King Mohammed VI, despite his transition of the government to an ostensible constitutional monarchy.
[1] Under his father, King Hassan II, Morocco had one of the worst human rights records in Africa and the world, especially during the time period known as the "Years Of Lead", which lasted from the early 1960s until the late 1980s; it was a period in the country's history that was known for the brutal repression of political dissent and opposition, that involved wide-scale arrests, arbitrary detention, lengthy imprisonment, and even killings of political opponents.
Currently, Morocco continues to face some of these issues, as well as other human rights problems, such as poor prison conditions, the mistreatment of women and the LGBT community, and the widespread use of torture by police.
Despite the considerable improvements made in the last several years under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, who has rolled back some of his father's harshest decrees, repression of political dissidence, and torture of citizens by officials, is still commonplace in Morocco today.
Many high-profile Moroccan journalists, such as Aboubakr Jamai, Ali Anouzla, Ahmed Benchemsi and Rachid Niny, have been reduced to silence through a combination of imprisonment, heavy fines, advertising boycott and distribution/withholding of state funds.
Their cases were much less publicised internationally because they were often young journalists writing for small publications or covering regional news (such as Mohammed Erraji from Agadir who was sentenced to 2 years in prison in 2010 for criticising the King's speech) Between 2000 and 2007, with the appearance in the scene of a few independent francophone magazines, such as Tel Quel and Le Journal Hebdomadaire and their sister Arabic counterparts (e.g. Assahifa Al Ousbouia), government control over the media has moved somewhat from direct intervention to more subtle pressures, such as the use of lawsuits and libel cases.
[2] On May 2, 2007, the New York City-based NGO Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published their annual report on the "10 countries where press freedom has most deteriorated" where it reported that according to CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon; "Democracy's foothold in Africa is shallow when it comes to press freedom" and that Morocco was among the "Top 10 Backsliders" in 2007 after "having been considered as a leader in its region".
[4] In June 2020, an investigation by Amnesty International alleged that Moroccan journalist Omar Radi, was targeted using the Israeli spyware Pegasus.
[5] On 19 April 2022, the Human Rights Watch reported that Rabie al-Ablaq, a social media commentator, risks up to four years in prison on a charge of disrespecting the king.
He was charged on behalf of two videos posted on Facebook and YouTube in which he addressed the king in a casual tone and contrasted his personal wealth to Morocco's widespread poverty.
[7] It is a criminal offence in Morocco to undermine the monarchy: in August 2023, a Moroccan resident of Qatar was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for criticising the King's policy decisions on Facebook.
The previous decades are sometimes described as the Years of Lead (Les Années de Plomb), and included forced disappearances, killings of government opponents and secret internment camps such as Tazmamart.
To examine the abuses committed during the reign of King Hassan II (1961–1999), the government has set up an Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), which is to rehabilitate the victims and pay compensation for state outrages against them.
In Morocco, thousands of children—predominantly girls and some as young as eight—work illegally in private homes as domestic workers, where they often encounter physical and verbal violence, isolation, and seven-day-a-week labor that begins at dawn and continues until late at night.
The ability for mother to pass their citizenship onto their children does not appear in the Mudawana code but was granted by a royal decision in October 2006.
However, human rights organizations and some liberal media outlets and left-wing political parties led by the Front of Democratic Forces have been attempting to start a capital punishment debate.
In April 2015, the Minister of Justice and Liberties (PJD government) made a public announcement about a bill relative to capital punishment, among other subjects.
The wife of Abdelqader Belliraj, a dual citizen of Morocco and Belgium, told Human Rights Watch in January 2020 of the abuse her husband is subjected to in prison since 2016.
[34] Human rights activists have raised concerns regarding the extradition of dual Australian-Saudi citizen Dr Osama AlHasani to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, following his detention in Morocco.
The supporters of the detainee have called his detention a political case and cited the demand for his extradition requested by the Saudi Arabian government.
AlHassani was arrested in Morocco upon his arrival on 8 February after being allegedly accused of organizing opposition activity against Wahhabism, the Sunni Islam followed in Saudi Arabia.
[39] Prior to that, Human Rights Watch's Vanessa Saenen had declared in 2005, "We have information based on interviews from people who have been in Guantanamo Bay that there are secret detention centres.
Even the US government doesn't bother to hide this, and we have information from released prisoners on Jordan, on Morocco, on Egypt and Libya, but not on Romania and Poland.
