Minister of Justice, Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi has shed light on major projects and achievements undertaken by the Ministry of Justice to reform the judiciary apparatus.
Minister Ouahbi has stated in his response to MPs questions during an oral session held at the Parliament last Monday, November 28, 2022, that the Ministry has worked on reexamining a number of bills which have been submitted to the government’s secretariat general and this includes: Bill about civil code procedure, project bill number 37.22 about the higher judiciary institute, a project bill about the national institute for legal and judiciary professions and the clerk’s office, project bill number 19.21 about organization and management of penitentiary institutions, in addition to project bill number 16.03 about Al Odul profession, and project bill number 21.46 about judiciary commissioners.
The Ministry, according to the Minister, has also reexamined other projects bills which include project bill number 44.22 about bill number 45.00 about judiciary experts, a project bill number 27.21 about digitization of judiciary proceedings, and a project bill about the creation of national agency to manage and collect money and seized properties or expropriated fines and follow up of penalties, another project bill about alternative penalties, and amendment of chapter 10 of the bill about Moroccan citizenship, and a project bill of penal code and a project bill to reexamine chapter 14 of the code of judiciary expenses in the penal sector.
The Minister has also tackled bills which are in course of study by the Ministry, including some projects bills in the penal code such as project bill number 10.16 about changing and completing the penal code and a project bill about general status applied to centers of childhood and reintegration, and a project bill to create national bank for genetic fingerprints.
Mr. Ouahbi has reminded of bills about civil code procedure such as project bill number 67.19 about code of judiciary fees and expenses, project bill about organization of lawyers profession, and another project bill about organization of notaries profession, and aggregated translators profession accepted to the courts, and a project bill about changing and completing bill number 15.01 about sponsorship of abandoned children.
At the level of digital transformation, Minister Ouahbi has informed about efforts undertaken by the Ministry of Justice to bring judiciary administration closer to citizens and the launching of e-payment of fines for offenses detected through fixed radars; and the creation of a platform of national consultation on condition and access of women to judiciary system, plus the start-up of a service for e-judicial registry in its new version, and the e-national reference for legal and judiciary professions, and also improvement of the Justice Ministry’s electronic website and creation of a call center to establish efficient communication bases with all interveners in the judiciary apparatus.
The Minister has outlined that the Ministry has deployed over the last three years great efforts to reinforce courts with human resources and has organized a number of exams to hire new staff and has allocated 500 new budget positions in 2022.
At the level of creating and reinforcing courts infrastructures, the Minister has stated that the ministry is pursuing efforts in the process of construction, rehabilitation and equipment of courts; and this has included 29 courts of justice and different judicial centers across the Kingdom; and 15 courts and judicial centers were inaugurated in waiting for the inauguration f 17 more courts and judicial centers.
Minister Ouahbi has clarified that reforming the judiciary is linked to three elements: financial means, human resources and then professions which assist the judiciary, referring that all those sectors need to be reexamined.
From the legal point of view, the Minister sees that there are a number of bills that need to be reviewed since they are linked to transformations witnessed by the Ministry of Justice, such as separation of General Attorney’s Office from the judiciary power, and also social developments all this requires a reexamination of a number of bills and reliance on digital element.