20 Human Rights Organizations in Morocco to Protest on Thursday

The Moroccan Coalition of Human Rights Organizations called for a protest outside the Parliament doors in Rabat this Thursday against the ongoing violations of rights and freedoms in the Kingdom, including freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of demonstration, and peaceful protest.

Given the spread of human rights violations in the country, the coalition called on all its constituent organizations, all democratic bodies, and all forces supporting human rights to participate in the sit-in on the occasion of the “National Day of Public Liberties” and demand once again “the immediate cessation of all forms of prohibition and restrictions that affect rights and freedoms.”

The coalition, which includes more than 20 human rights organizations, said in a press release, “The continued systematic harassment suffered by many human rights, associations, syndicates and political bodies of the Interior Ministry, especially the continued refusal of many of services to enable several bodies to submit files for establishment or renewal, whether temporary or final.”

Protestors explained that this behaviour “constitutes a clear violation of the law, and a violation of the constitutional guarantees related to freedom of organization and protest stipulated in Chapter Two on fundamental freedoms and rights, and Morocco’s obligations stipulated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Rabat.”

The Moroccan Coalition of Human Rights Organizations asserted in its press release that this illegal treatment by the Ministry of Interior is repeated in several parts of Morocco and “places the concerned bodies in a difficult legal position, and obstructs the exercise of their work and activities, which are guaranteed by national and international laws, and at the same time confiscates the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to organize, and other basic rights.”