The thematic commission in charge of evaluating the circumstances and conditions of application of Law 103.13 relating to the fight against violence against women met today, Wednesday, at the House of Representatives, in the presence of the leaders of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH).
The heads of the human rights institution presented to the deputies a number of known problems in the implementation of the aforementioned law, and they also presented recommendations to the Council in this regard. According to a well-informed source, the Council warned of the need to harmonize the law on violence with the criminal law and the family code, stressing that it should not be discussed in isolation from the amendments that the criminal law and code will define.
The Council also stressed that the law must take up what is stipulated in the international agreements ratified by Morocco. On the other hand, the Parliament and the Representatives have raised the issue of marital rape and the need for the law to recognize it, in addition to modifying the articles relating to sexual harassment, and to scrutinize them, to criticize the terms and the words which have a general meaning, as is the case with the term “perseverance in harassment”.
The recommendations issued by the Council during this meeting also concerned the need to adopt the one-stop shop for reporting cases of violence, and to broaden the definition of violence, adds the same source. She concluded that the meeting had highlighted the lack of systematic intervention to protect abused women, in addition to the non-reporting by neighbors who witnessed incidents of violence.
The thematic working group, responsible for assessing the conditions for the implementation or application of the law on combating violence against women, opened its work by holding a meeting with the President of the Public Ministry and Head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office Moulay Hassan Daki as well as a certain number of officials of this institution.
The group is expected to continue its meetings with other officials from government sectors and civil society associations, and prepare its recommendations in a report to be submitted to the Bureau of the House of Representatives.