Minister of Justice Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi, is foreseeing the future of human rights in the Kingdom, through a number of regulations the Ministry is eager to either implement or to amend to become appropriate with spirit of the era and take into account social new developments
In this context, Minister Ouahbi stressed, in a statement he made during the closing meeting of the regional consultative process to prepare the national report, organized by the ministerial delegation in charge of human rights, last Tuesday, June 28, 2022, at the faculty of law and economic sciences, Souissi, on the Justice Ministry eagerness to prepare a penal code procedure which has brought many measures aimed at guaranteeing fair trial and balance between power of accusation and the rights of the remaining sides, at protecting weak and vulnerable categories, especially women and children, handling some shortcomings and practices and particularly guaranteeing balance between resorting to custody and protecting accused rights and justice processing, at rationalizing police custody and endorsing alternative detention and sentences, and finally reinforcing electronic means in the fight against criminality.
With the same determination, said the Minister, a bill was drafted about alternative sentences, which enters in the context of national efforts to make appropriate national legislations with international standards and to modernize the penal system, taking into account criminality changes, development of punishment policy and handling the problem of overcrowding in prisons, keeping up with the era spirit and contributing to reinforce civic rights; and this could be done through overcoming the unilateralism system of freedom-deprived sentences, and finding an alternative punishment system modern and efficient aimed at rehabilitating the behavior of the offender and prepare him for re-integration inside the society”.
In the same reforming spirit, Minister Ouahbi added that, “the government is handling some social issues that require consensual solutions to make legal requirements suitable with international standards of human rights and also with social developments on their top underage marriage with all its negative impacts on children’s rights, and death penalty whose requirements no longer fit with modern penal policy and with related international commitments”.
The Minister said furthermore, “in addition to the importance of focusing on reviewing the family status code which, due to some realistic practices, should be reexamined and handled in a manner that would preserve constitutional constants and keep abreast with the era spirit and social developments”.
The Minister has emphasized the importance of civil and political human rights, which could not be achieved without focusing on economic and social rights, as the government is eager to activate the contents of the new development model, which reflects royal supreme orientations and expectations of all the society’s political components and powers to aspire to large scope development with its civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environment dimensions”.