Human rights in Morocco

I- Introduction
Living standards in Morocco are considered low by international standards.
After several decades of progress they have declined continually since the early
1990s. As a result, the number of Moroccans living below the state delineated
poverty line has risen sharply in the last decade. Even though poverty levels
dropped to 13% in 1991, some 19% of the population lived below the poverty
line in 2000. On a positive note, the proportion of the population living at
extreme poverty levels, living on less than $1 per day, decreased to less than 1%
from 2% a decade ago. The proportion of individuals living on less than $2 per
day dropped from 20% to 8% at the national level and from 34% to 14% in rural
areas. In spite of mainstream poverty, disproportionate political and economic
development has led to the emergence of an affluent class, whose top 20%
control 47% of the countrys wealth, while the bottom 20% control 6%. Poverty
is more widespread in rural areas than in urban areas. Historically, the
Casablanca-Rabat axis has been more prosperous, and is also the capital as well
as a major tourist destination, thus receiving more government attention than
the predominantly mountainous Northern provinces and the Western Sahara
region. The rocky mountainous regions, though not ideally habitable, offer
prosperous growing conditions for cannabis cultivation, which has become an
economic means for various Berber communities seeking individual forms of
pecuniary resolution.

II- Freedom from Slavery

The overarching state of dissatisfaction and denial of a feasible means of
existence has led to other insults, such as child labor law violations, gender
inequities and the emerging drug trafficking business on the Strait of Gibraltar.
Families lacking security often resort to unfavorable options, such as child labor,
drug trafficking and emigration endeavors. Tens of thousands (13,500 in the
greater Casablanca area alone) of girls, under the age of fifteen, work as
domestic aids, in direct violation of Moroccan and International law which
prohibits employing children under the age of fifteen. Some documented cases
report girls as young as five years old working for four cents an hour. Many
girls claim that their employers beat and verbally abuse them, deny them
education, and refuse them adequate food and medical care. Most victims come
from poor rural regions, where their families have limited options and lack the
economic means and resources necessary to prosecute the perpetrators.
 III- Freedom from Torture and Degrading Treatment
In an October 2012 report, the Conseil National des Droits de lHomme (CNDH)
noted that it had observed a persistence of abuses in visited prisons by the staff
against inmates. The CNDH further indicated that prison staff beat prisoners
with sticks and hoses, hung them on doors with handcuffs, beat the soles of their
feet, slapped them, pricked them with needles, burned them, kicked them,
forced them to undress in view of other prisoners, and used insults and
malicious language against them. The CNDH noted that abuses persisted in
most of the prisons it visited, except for Inezgane and Dakhla, where only
isolated cases were witnessed.Numerous NGO reports and media articles
reinforced these accusations with accounts of members of security forces
torturing and abusing individuals in their custody, particularly during pretrial
detention. The government did not respond publicly to the CNDH or initiate
implementation of their recommendations.

IV- Freedom of Opinion and Information

violence and insecurity has weakened the economic potential for Morocco and
polarized the populace by increasing minority wealth at the expense of the poor.
Political Authority in Morocco is gained via loyalty to the monarchy and to King
Mohammed VI. The monarchys power is solidified through the enforcement of
laws by its armed forces, as well as the civilian and military elite, who all benefit
from the relationship. Historically the makhzen, which is the sultans court,
together with the provincial administration and the army, who have been the
enforcers of tax collection, collectively secure the monarchy with their alliances.
Therefore it is unlikely that the administration or armed forces will contradict
the authority of the monarchy, or vice versa. This patron-client relationship has
long offered economic opportunities, social hierarchy and political protection
as a tradeoff for a loyalist regime. However, with a widening gap between rural
and urban populations, along with increased poverty, many Moroccan citizens
find themselves disenfranchised and yearning for reform in this new age where
they can coalesce with neighboring regions, united by communal grit. Political
authority in Morocco is the result of pre-colonial forms of partisan structure and
also of colonial administration and military operations under the French. Since
independence it 27 has been important for the regime to exhibit some display of
democratic rule. The first constitution of 1962 legitimized democracy for the
monarchy by establishing a multi-party system and ensuring individual
liberties for its citizens. However, this feigned impression of a republic that has
not agreed well with average citizens who still see the king and his puppets as
the elite immobilisme. The monarchy has adjusted, with increased tolerance for
moderate Islamists in the political arena, such as the PJD party which formed in
the late nineties. This strategy of trying to contain challengers to the regime only
by increasing the inner circle has resulted in civil unrest and public protest.

V- Right to Adequate Living Standard

Moroccos drug problem has been indiscriminately flying below the radar,
while civil discontent, increasing poverty and perceived monarchical
sovereignty sustain political opposition. Morocco is the worlds largest hashish
exporter, supplying 70% of the European market. The Middle East Research
Project estimates hashish production at 2,000 metric tons per year, utilizing
85,000 hectares and garnering $2 billion annually.101 Tangier, the capital for
drug trade, offers jobs to those unable to find work within the states lopsided
infrastructure. The Northern Morocco geography challenges the state, offering
the advantage of European proximity to drug barons, whose privileged position
in the Moroccan political system compromises the states motivation to
prosecute them. Despite the governments anti-drug trafficking campaigns of
the 1990s, the drug trade continues to flourish.

VI- Right to Equality

Although some reports hold Morocco as an example of progressiveness with
womens rights, its judicial system is based on Islamic Law (Sharia) whose
conditionality does not hold women as equals to men. Moroccan law allows a
rapist to marry their victim, to avoid prosecution, without regard to the
amenability of the victim. The 2013 case of sixteen year old Amini Filali made
international news when she committed suicide after she was forced to marry
her abuser. According to Article 475 in Moroccan Law, a rapist can avoid prison
through marriage, undermining the worth of the victim who is deemed
unmarriageable after her virginity is lost. This case riled protesters to demand
the repeal of Article 475 while coming at a time 29 when King Mohammed VI
was scheduled to meet with President Obama, the first high level meeting
between the two countries in 11 years. In spite of objections by human rights
activists, the US maintains strong diplomatic ties with Morocco, perhaps based
on US incentive for Moroccan cooperation in combatting North African armed
militia groups. Mudawwana, sharia based law explains gender inequalities
through high patriarchal interpretation of Islamic legal code, which since the
1980s has acted as the benchmark for womens rights movements in many Arab
states. Feminist reform came to fruition in 1999 when the government proposed
the NPA (National Plan for Action to integrate women into staterun operations),
which promised to remove inequalities from the existing law. The NPA drew
heavily on the United Nations Code: Convention for the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), as well as the Beijing platform of
1999. This movement polarized Moroccans between those who believed that
Islamic law had been adulterated with the enabling leadership of the then
considered, socialist government. Secular feminists who supported the reform
were pitted against pro-sharia Islamists, in opposition of the reform, resulting
in the globally viewed street demonstrations of 2000. The Rabat protest drew
over 60 feminist groups: international funding groups and womens rights
groups, parliamentary deputies, as well as men, some wanting their own
daughters out of bad marriages. The rally of over 400,000 was just one aspect of
the womens mobilization where women wanted sharia law rethought,
analyzing the discrepancies between womens subordination and their
contributions to their country.

VII- Right to Free Movement In and Out of the Country Migrants

Moroccos geographic location offers an ideal springboard for discouraged
civilians from Africa, to migrate to Europe. The Strait of Gibraltar is the
passageway from Morocco to Spain. Ceuta and Melilla are enclaves of Spain
which many immigrants hope to reach in order to gain European residency. No
international policy exists to deal with the ongoing struggle of immigrants
traveling to Melila in hopes of gaining European residency. The current de facto
arrangement is unsatisfactory to both Morocco and Spain, as well as the many
sub-Saharan refugees caught in the middle. Morocco is responsible for prison
abuses of refugees captured and Spain is culpable for chronically expelling
refugees seeking asylum. The issue will likely continue since the situation in
their home country is often worse than the abuses refugees 30 withstand.
Moroccan security forces commonly beat and abuse sub-Saharan refugees
seeking asylum, while attempting to reach Melila, despite the new Moroccan
migration policy of 2013. Since that time, the practice of summarily expelling
migrants at the border of Algeria appears to have stopped. Spain often forcibly
returns these refugees to Morocco where they are routinely imprisoned.
Nevertheless, police are still conducting raids in the Nador area. Migrants
described raids that occurred as recently as 29 January 2014, when police
destroyed makeshift migrant encampments and arrested and beat individuals
trying to reach Melilla. Police impunity, which leaves victims without recourse,
further perpetuates abuses against refugees.

VIII- Right to Life, Liberty and Personal Security

The most significant continuing human rights issues are the lack of citizens
ability to change the constitutional provisions which have established the
countrys monarchical regime, corruption in all branches of government, and
widespread disregard for the rule of law by sanctioned constabularies. State
authorities often fail at maintaining effective control over designated security
forces, with multiple documented cases of government appointed agencies
having committed human rights abuses. Moroccan citizens critical of the
monarchy face restrictions on speech, with protests often met by excessive force
from armed officers. Amnesty International reports human rights abuses
against Moroccan citizens who speak out against the monarchy. Morocco's
interior minister, Taieb Cherqaoui, who oversees the Royal Moroccan
Gendarmerie (the Moroccan police under jurisdiction of the king), says five
people were killed during demonstrations on 20 February 2011, in which
protesters took to the streets demanding that King Mohammed VI give up some
of his powers, dismiss the government, and clamp down on corruption. This
protest, upwards of 3,000 people, marked Moroccos entry into the Arab
Uprising. A variety of sources reported other civil rights abuses, such as police
use of excessive force to quell peaceful protests, resulting in hundreds of
injuries, as well as torture and other abuses by the security forces.

IX- Conclusion
In spite of the monarchys claims of operating under a democratic constitution,
ultimate authority rests with its King, Mohammed VI, who has power over the
Council of Ministers allowing him to cherry pick state officials as well as
dissolve parliament via new elections. The PJD which formed in 1998 by King
Hassan II, has effectively partnered with the monarchy, strengthening selective
power within a minority elite. The disparity between the impoverished majority
and the politicized coterie has induced citizens to seek reform and publicly
challenge the monarchy. Morocco, being an Arab state has a tradition of
allegiance to its ruler, the baya, which has stirred controversy between Islamist
obligation and desires for a modern democracy. This conflict is often at the
nucleus of human rights abuses, such as rights to equality, adequate living
standard as well as rights to life, liberty and personal security. Yet the monarchy
continues to increase its authority within the constitution, despite civil riots
demanding representation of popular consent. Ultimately as monarchical and
elitist power rise while poverty and lack of opportunity encumber the masses,
human rights violations will remain an issue in Morocco. Desperation breeds
defiance as a means to attaining justice when peoples needs are callously left
unmet.