Seminar on Promoting Women’s Rights and their Role in Transitional Justice Process in Morocco

In collaboration with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and with financial support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH) organizes the final seminar on the Project on Promoting Women’s Rights and their Role in Transitional Justice Process in Morocco, on September 28, 2009 at the Hotel Tour Hassan at 9:00.

The objective of the seminar, to be attended by various national and international partners of the project, is to share the achievements of the project and discuss the prospects.

The seminar will be organized around three working sessions:

- Gender and transitional justice, general introduction: presentation of achievements of the project;
- Moroccan experience in gender and transitional justice: qualitative analysis and action strategy;
- Testimonials by NGOs which are mangers of pilot projects.

It is recalled that the CCDH develops, as part of the follow-up of recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) and in partnership with UNIFEM, a strategy for mainstreaming the gender approach throughout the process of following up the IER recommendations, particularly regarding the community reparation program. The project helped to highlight the role and contribution of women in democratic processes and strengthen their participation in reconciliation and conflict resolution. It revolves around five areas:

1. Support for the institutionalization of the gender approach in the framework of mechanism of monitoring recommendations;

2. Support for associational activities of economic, social and cultural development integrating gender approach and women’s rights in the regions targeted by the IER report in a perspective of reparation/reconciliation/preservation of memory;

3. Promotion of dialogue between actors at local level with a concern for gender and protection of women’s rights;

4. Development of awareness materials on the issue of past gross human rights violations in Morocco, according to the gender approach and women's human rights;

5. Making the Moroccan experience in gender and transitional justice a model through a study of the process implemented by Morocco in the context of regional exchange of lessons learned.

It should be noted that the project was conducted in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Commission of the European Union, the International Center for Transitional Justice, the CDG, a financial group, and partner NGOs, including ACEF, the Zagora Associative Network for Development and Democracy (R. AZDED), the RADOS, a network of associations of development of southern oases.