Thursday, May 11, 2023 at 9:55 PM
Rabat – The National Human Rights Council (CNDH) notes, in its latest report, a growing interest of society for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls with increased sensitivity to the cross-cutting nature of women’s rights and their development dimensions.
In this report on the situation of human rights in Morocco in 2022, the Council indicates that this interest is manifested in many legislative texts promulgated that year with the aim of improving the legal status of women through the consecration of equality between men and women, among other things, the law aimed at achieving parity in the boards of directors of companies, the bill relating to the profession of the Adouls establishing the legality of the testimony of women which is now worth that of man.
And to quote in support the Speech from the Throne delivered in July 2022 by HM the King in favor of a real participation of Moroccan women in all areas and which has a deep political connotation in terms of promoting women’s rights. and its role in all development dynamics.
The Council recalls, in this regard, that the Sovereign had on this occasion called for the revision of the Family Code to “inaugurate a new chapter on the path to the consecration of gender equality” and thus confirm that “in in today’s Morocco, it is no longer tolerated that a woman be deprived of her rights”.
Referring, moreover, to violence against women, the report notes a resurgence of this phenomenon both in terms of reported cases and in terms of the form of violence perpetrated, explaining this fact by the weakness of the legal protection of women before and after the commission of acts of violence against them.
Recalling that the CNDH had recommended to include in the definition of rape in the penal code all forms of sexual assault and this, to avoid a differentiation of sentences for similar acts as is the case today in the courts.
In addition, the report points to the resurgence of digital violence against women, approximately 1.5 million women victims of cyber-violence, or 19% of the total of all forms of violence against women, adding that for girls aged 15 to 19, this rate is 34% and a little less, 28%, for women aged 20 to 24.
The report also points to the persistence of certain legal, economic and cultural blockages which do little to promote the participation of women in the national economy and their empowerment, also deploring the rise in the unemployment rate to 17.2 (+ 0, 4) among women during the post-Covid 19 period against a decrease among men (10.3%), i.e. a decline of 0.6.
And the CNDH stresses that the consecration of equality between men and women is based on the effectiveness of women’s rights and their empowerment in the political and economic fields, and thus put an end to all forms of discrimination and the reduction of their presence in the public space.
The Council also considers that the public debate around the reform of the family code is an opportunity to consolidate legal guarantees for the protection of women’s rights, noting however that the legal and institutional dimensions are not sufficient alone to achieve the effectiveness of women’s rights, gender equality or the elimination of all forms of discrimination.
”It is now necessary to set up parallel mechanisms to establish a real balance within society capable of protecting girls and women against any violation of their rights, of consolidating gender equality and also fight against all forms of discrimination and violence”, pleads the CNDH, before concluding by noting that the positive effect of laws on the condition of women and girls remains dependent on an egalitarian culture in its universal dimension, in addition to the conditions necessary for the empowerment of women in the economic, social and political fields.
