Morocco authorities obstructing independent rights organization
February 20, 2017
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Moroccan authorities have been on a two-year campaign to obstruct Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) he country's largest independent human rights organization. According to HRW, the authorities have blocked a total of 125 AMDH conferences, meetings and other public and private events since 2014 by either expressly prohibiting the events or pressuring the owners of the meeting spaces not to allow the events to go forward. The authorities reportedly provided written notice in only seven of the 125 instances, violating Morocco's 1958 Law on Public Assemblies. According to HRW, the canceled meetings and events covered women's rights, workers' rights and other human rights related topics.
Morocco has come under fire for human rights abuses in the past. In July 2015 a Moroccan court heard a case against two women for wearing skirts that were too tight, a case that received a large amount of criticism for showing discrimination, and 200 lawyers took turns defending the women. In June 2015 wo Moroccan gay men were sentenced to four months in prison for violating the nation's "public modesty" law by posing too closely together in a picture. In May 2015 Amnesty International reported widespread torture of Moroccan prisoners at the hands of authorities, with a documented 173 cases between 2010 and 2014. The report also stated that medical care, hygiene and food are lacking in the detention cells. In April 2015 a judge in Spain decided that genocide charges against seven former and current Moroccan officials, who were accused of committing torture and killings in Western Sahara from 1975-91, were justified. In November 2014 HRW reported that Moroccan authorities are interfering with the work of human rights organizations. A Moroccan court in August 2014 sentenced human rights activist Ouafa Charaf to one year in prison after being convicted of falsely alleging that she had been tortured by police.
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