The National Human Rights Council (CNDH) presented, Thursday in Rabat, its annual report in an abbreviated version reserved for children.
This abridged version of the annual report, published on the occasion of National Child Day, is part of the CNDH’s advocacy campaign to institutionalize the “principle of child participation” under the title “I decide of my destiny”, launched in November 2022 by the President of the Council, Amina Bouayach, on the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of the Child.
On this occasion, the President of the Council affirmed that this initiative constitutes an opportunity for the Council to apply its strategy relating to children, noting that it goes hand in hand with the process of concretizing the right of children to participation, requiring mainly their access to information and data adapted to their level of maturity and the provision of ad hoc tools and support.
The Board has ensured the progressive development of tools and materials for children, including a version of the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” reserved for this category and a guide to introduce the National Mechanism for recourse for child victims of violations of their rights, she noted in a speech read on her behalf by the secretary general of the CNDH, Mounir Bensalah.
According to Bouayach, the CNDH had launched from Guelmim regional consultations in the twelve regions of the Kingdom, allowing children to submit their special report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to share their opinions and suggestions with the aim of guaranteeing their rights, displaying her conviction of the possibility of moving from consultative participation to effective participation, which she also called “contractual participation”, which offers the opportunity to opt for the approach based on work “with the child” rather than for the child work approach.
It should be noted that the children’s version of the CNDH’s annual report on the human rights situation includes the most important recommendations from its last three reports (2019, 2020 and 2021) concerning the rights of the child, at the levels legal, institutional and public policies, an overview of the general situation of human rights in Morocco during the year 2022, in addition to the recommendations of the 2022 report relating to human rights in general.