CCDH Receives WGEID

Members of the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH) and former members of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) received on June 23, 2009, in Rabat, the UN Working on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID).

The purpose of this meeting, which falls within the scope of the visit of WGEID to Morocco at the invitation of the Government of Morocco, from June 21-25, is to inquire into the experience of Morocco in the field of transitional justice, particularly the process of establishing the truth about the past gross human rights violations relating to enforced disappearances.

The CCDH presented at this meeting the various dimensions of the Moroccan experience in transitional justice, including aspects relating to the establishment of the truth about the gross human rights violations, individual and community reparation, reconciliation process, and legislative and institutional reforms in the areas of human rights and democracy.

Indeed, the Moroccan experience in this area has already involved the provisions of the draft Convention on Enforced Disappearances before its adoption, both in qualifying cases, as in the definition of this violation adopted in the final report of the Commission. The IER recommendations are also dedicated specifically to these questions (Criminalization of enforced disappearance and other serious violations of human rights, fight against impunity, security governance, etc.).

The WGEID, in its recently-published reports, filed respectively in 2008 and 2009 to the Human Rights Council, commended the cooperation of the Moroccan Government for the clarifications it provided on enforced disappearance, stating that “this attitude should be emulated by other countries”. This fruitful cooperation of Morocco with this special procedure has made it possible, since 1994, to elucidate the fate of 192 cases of alleged disappearances of a total of 250. That is, a ratio of 84.4% of cases has been clarified.

Mr. Ahmed Herzenni, CCDH President, said in a statement to the MAP, Morocco’s news agency, that this visit was an opportunity to assess the results of cooperation between Morocco and WGEID, recalling that the Kingdom, one of the first countries that signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearance, was preparing for its final ratification.

During its stay in Morocco, the WGEID held several meetings with various government departments (Mr. Nasser BOURITA, Director General of Multilateral Relations and Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mr. Abdelouahed Radi, Minister of Justice, and Speaker of the House of Councilors, Mr. Maati Benkaddour), civil society: Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) and the Forum for Truth and Justice (FVJ), the Ombudsman and some families of victims of enforced disappearance.

Also, the CCDH organized visits to Derb Moulay Cherif in Casablanca, Agdez and Kelaat M'Gouna to inform WGEID of the progress made in the preservation of memory and community reparation.

The WGEID commended in a communiqué issued at the end of its visit that the IER covered a long period, heard thousands of victims, held public hearings and began the work of the establishment of the archives. It also praised the gender approach adopted by the IER.

The WGEID also noted with satisfaction Morocco's commitment "not to tolerate or permit any form of enforced disappearance or secret detention for even short periods".

Finally, the WGEID hailed the important and active role played by Morocco in drafting and promoting the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearance.

It should be noted that the UN WGEID held from June 26-28 in Rabat, for the first time in an Arab, Islamic and African country, its 88th ordinary session.

Created in 1980 by the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations, the WGEID seeks as a main mission to help families of missing persons to elucidate the fate of the victims. This working group is essentially the contact between families of disappeared persons and the governments concerned.

The WGEID delegation was composed of:

•Mr. Santiago Corcuera, Chairperson;

•Mr. Olivier de Frouville;

• Mr. Jeremy J. Sarkin;

• Mr. Saied Rajae Khorasani;

• Mr. Darko Göttlicher