Views expressed by the State under review on the outcome and concluding remarks

4. Views expressed by the State under review on the
outcome and concluding remarks

266. With regard to the case of the journalist mentioned during the debate, he said that the journalist in question had been detained for reasons that had to do with his status as a journalist. Indeed, no one was detained in Tunisia for his or her opinions. However, one’s profession was not a source of immunity for any offences a person might commit. With regard to Internet access, he recalled that the Tunisian Government had been accused of sentencing young people for having used Internet websites to create explosives. One of the youths in question had been pardoned and had subsequently died in an incident linked to a terrorist act.

267. The Minister said that there were still many obstacles to be overcome, particularly with regard to the exploitation of religion and religious extremism. Terrorism posed a major challenge, but it would not hold Tunisia back and would be dealt with through the law. If there were still inadequacies in Tunisia’s counter terrorism legislation, the Government was prepared to rectify them.

268. The Minister said that, at the domestic level, Tunisia would pursue and strengthen its positive collaboration with civil society, which must play a role in the promotion of human rights.

269. The Minister concluded his statement by expressing the hope that he had contributed to the success of the universal periodic review exercise, which he believed to be useful, but which must be followed by self study at the national level, an effort in which Tunisia, which had made human rights a strategic choice, was already engaged.

Morocco

271. At its 14th meeting, on 9 June 2008, the Council considered and adopted the outcome of the review on Morocco (see section C below).

272. The outcome of the review on Morocco is constituted of the report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (A/HRC/8/22 and Corr.1), together with the views of Morocco concerning the recommendations and/or conclusions, as well as its voluntary commitments and its replies presented before the adoption of the outcome by the plenary to questions or issues that were not sufficiently addressed during the interactive dialogue in the Working Group.

1. Views expressed by the State under review on the recommendations
and/or conclusions as well as on its voluntary commitments

274. Hardly two weeks after Morocco’s periodic review, on 25 and 26 April 2008, the Human Rights Documentation, Training and Information Centre, which was a subsidiary body of the Consultative Council on Human Rights, the country’s national human rights institution, had held a symposium on the launching of the preparatory process for the National Plan of Action in the area of democracy and human rights, the completion of which would allow Morocco to join the group of States that had established such an instrument at the international level.

275. The objective of the Plan was to help the Government, organizations and members of civil society in their efforts to ensure respect for and promote and protect human rights; strengthen national institutions working in that area; disseminate information on human rights standards and mechanisms, particularly among law enforcement bodies and social workers; develop specific programmes to improve the situation of vulnerable groups within the country; and place emphasis on the role of human rights in national development. Following the official launching of the Plan, the Human Rights Documentation, Training and Information Centre planned to hold four regional meetings during June and July 2008 with a view to decentralizing the debate and working together with the local actors concerned.

276. The recent initiative by the Moroccan Government aimed at combating violence against women, including domestic violence, had led to a wide range of measures ranging from the establishment of new counselling centres and shelters for battered women to a revision of the Criminal Code aimed at criminalizing domestic violence. In order to sensitize public opinion to the phenomenon, Morocco was to conclude an agreement with the High Commissioner’s Office aimed at making both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the problem and its repercussions known. Similarly, a national survey was to be conducted to ascertain the prevalence of gender based violence. There were also plans to strengthen counselling centres and shelters for women victims, working together with various actors, by establishing 16 new centres in 2009 in collaboration with non governmental organizations (NGOs). The Government’s social development strategy called for the creation of a rehabilitation centre for perpetrators of violence and the institutionalization of the National Observatory to Eliminate Violence against Women. Lastly, a multisectoral programme to combat gender based violence, which was the result of partnership with eight United Nations specialized agencies, had officially been introduced on 30 May 2008. The objective of the programme was to promote women’s equality and empowerment and to reduce violence against women by half.

277. With regard to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Morocco had signed, the Government had, in tandem with the ratification process, prepared a bill on strengthening the rights of persons with disabilities which was based largely on the Convention.

278. With regard to the situation in prisons, King Mohammed VI had on 29 April 2008 appointed a High Commissioner General for Prison Administration and Reintegration whose role was to ensure safety in correctional establishments, modernize them and ensure that no violation of the law occurred within them. The High Commissioner General would be assisted in the performance of his functions by a Director, who would be responsible for creating adequate conditions for effective inmate training with a view to the professional and social reintegration of inmates after their release. In terms of infrastructure, the Moroccan Government was pursuing its programme of renovating and expanding existing prisons and was going ahead with the construction of seven new prisons, while three more projects aimed at reducing prison population density and improving living conditions were under consideration. The Moroccan Government was also implementing two other measures in pursuit of the same goal: the early release of a number of prisoners and the adoption of alternative measures to deprivation of liberty.

279. The Moroccan delegation provided the following information on efforts to implement the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission, which was one of the Working Group’s recommendations.

280. With regard to reparations to individuals, it was noted that some 13,412 beneficiaries, representing victims of grave human rights violations perpetrated in the past or their heirs, had received compensation, with over 95 per cent of all persons so entitled having received reparations or compensation. Cooperation between the national human rights institution and the Government had led to the signing of an agreement on the inclusion of victims of grave violations in the basic health-care system. Under that agreement, the State would bear all medical expenses of the victims and their heirs.

281. With regard to reparations at the community level, 11 local coordination offices had been established in the regions that had suffered most from the violations in order to promote participation in the implementation of development projects for those regions.

282. Again in the area of individual and community reparation, it was noted that the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training and the Consultative Council on Human Rights had concluded a cooperation agreement on 3 June 2008 that would allow that body to contribute to the implementation of individual and community reparation programmes.

283. On 28 and 29 May 2008, Morocco had organized the Twelfth National Congress on Children’s Rights which had had as its theme “Promoting children’s rights: what role for local actors?”. The Congress had afforded an opportunity for evaluating the National Plan of Action for Children (PANE) two years after its implementation. The Congress had concluded with the issuing of a declaration that endorsed the spirit of participation displayed by the various sectors, the involvement of children in the evaluation of PANE, the need to adopt quality standards, principles of equal opportunity and means of combating all forms of educational impoverishment, and further reform of the health-care system in terms of managed care and maternal and child health facilities.

284. With regard to human rights education and training, and in order to build the capacities of law enforcement officers in the area of human rights, the Consultative Council on Human Rights had begun to implement the partnership and cooperation agreements concluded with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of the Interior. Those agreements were intended to promote a culture of human rights in educational institutions and in the curricula of training programmes for law enforcement officials and officers within the Ministry of the Interior. A study had been undertaken to assess existing training and education programmes in order to measure capacity building needs and to determine whether any adjustments were needed.

285. The representative of Morocco said that his country had taken note of the recommendations concerning the International Criminal Court and the extending of a standing invitation to the Council’s special procedures, and he provided the following information.

286. As a reflection of its positive engagement with the United Nations machinery, Morocco had always cooperated fully with the special procedures and supported their mandates when it had not initiated them itself, as in the case of the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the situation of human rights defenders, which it had initiated with the delegation of Norway. More concretely, Morocco had been visited by the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography in 2000, by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants in 2003 and by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, whose mission report (A/HRC/8/10/Add.2) had been presented and considered at the beginning of the eighth session of the Council, in 2006. All those rapporteurs had attested to Morocco’s unstinting cooperation.

287. The representative of Morocco also reaffirmed that Morocco’s commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights was sincere, permanent and irreversible. After having courageously and voluntarily dealt with past violations of human rights and compensated the victims or their legitimate heirs, Morocco was currently endeavouring to consolidate its achievements in that area, to broaden the scope of freedoms and to create the conditions for the exercise by all Moroccans without distinction of all rights, whether civil, political, economic social or cultural. Morocco would not fail to keep the Council informed over time of the development of those reforms and their results.