On November 14 2007, ADFM organised a debate with the female members of Parliament within the framework of the National Campaign. It addressed lifting the restrictions imposed by the Moroccan government on the CEDAW Convention.

During this meeting, the national president of ADFM made a brief presentation on contents of the CEDAW, recalling its principal articles on discrimination of women.

Subsequently, Mrs. Rabéa Naciri held a presentation on Morocco and the CEDAW . She addressed pleadings made towards the Moroccan government to put into practice its commitments to the CEDAW.

Mrs. Rabéa Naciri stressed the international character of this campaign and mentioned the regional conference in Rabat in June 2006. This conference reunited all North African and Middle East countries and eventually led to the creation of the Assembly of Rabat (Appel de Rabat), “Equality Without Restrictions” and a comprehensive strategy action plan.

Furthermore, the president of ADFM used the occasion to mention the different activities undertaken on a national level to inform the public on this matter including:
- Publicity was generated in the writing press for the Assembly of Rabat and its list of associations that enforce the initiative;
- Letters were sent to the Prime Ministers Driss Jettou et Abbas Fassi accompanied by lists with the names of about 500 sympathising associations
- A press conference has been organised;
- A press communication has been published.

Furthermore, the President of ADFM reminded the present female Members of Parliament that the role of the legislative institutions is of utmost importance and can determine the outcome of reforms that Morocco has experienced in the past several years. Therefore, the President called upon the parliament, and more specificly the role of the female Delegates, to react to the pleas from the civic society by lifting the restrictions on the CEDAW and ratifying its optional protocol.

During the debate, the Delegates were questioned on the manners that can be used to strengthen the cooperation between women’s rights organisations and the delegates in favour of abolishing the restrictions on the CEDAW as well as the ratification of its optional protocol.

The participants of the debate agreed:
- To create a work unit that will eventually expand;
- To provide the female Members of Parliament with all the information on the subject, and to ensure that files on all other pending women’s rights questions are prepared;
- To have an informal breakfast meeting once a month in order to have a setting where ideas can be exchanged.

NB. In order to put these plans into practice, ADFM later contacted the women deputies to clarify the dates for the previously mentioned monthly gatherings. With this information, ADFM can undertake the organisation of these meetings.

Tuesday the 10 July 2007, the Democratic Organisation of Women of Morocco, ADFM (L’Assosiation démocratic des femmes du Maroc) organised a press conference in Rabat titled “The National Campaign to Lift the Restrictions on the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) and to Ratify its Optional Protocol”. The event was attended by multiple members of the writing and broadcasting press as well as by representatives of governmental bodies, representatives of the civil society and representatives of international organisations.

Conférence presse cedaw 10 07 2007

The National Campaign focused on urging the Moroccan government to follow through with its previous declaration to lift the current restrictions on the CEDAW and to ratify the optional protocol of this specific convention. Accomplishments within this campaign include the Assembly of Rabat being launched in July 2006, the publishing of an online petition in May 2007 and an open letter being addressed to the Prime Minister in July 2007.

It is important to note that Morocco has mentioned the declared lifting of the restrictions on the CEDAW on several occasions without ever finalizing its declaration. During the regional conference (Middle East and North Africa) on lifting restrictions of the CEDAW and ratifying its optional protocol, which had been organised by ADFAM and FIDH (Rabat, 8-10th of June 2006), Prime Minister Mr. Driss Jettou, declared that the Moroccan government had decided to lift the restrictions imposed on the CEDAW during its ratification and adopt its optional protocol. Furthermore, he ensured that a ministerial commission had been put in charge of overlooking the files concerning the CEDAW.

On 8 March 2006, a communiqué of the Minister of Justice announced that the existing restriction on the second paragraph of article 9 had been revoked, as well as the restriction on subsection ‘f’ from the first and second paragraphs of article 16. Furthermore, the communiqué declared the substitution of interpretative declarations based on restrictions on the other paragraphs of article 16 and the substitution of the interpretative declaration based on the declaration of the second paragraph of article 2 and the cancellation of the declaration on the fourth paragraph of article 15. This communiqué encompassed thus a partial lifting of certain restrictions, and the replacement of others by new explanatory declarations. Yet, an explanatory declaration of a restriction does not ensure a revocation. The contrary, preservation, usually results.

During the presentation of its candidature to the Human Rights Council (ONU, Geneva) in April 2006, the Moroccan government committed itself to initiating a process of lifting the existing restrictions on the CEDAW and accepting its optional protocol as soon as possible. Nevertheless, that day, not a single concrete measure was taken to start this process of lifting restrictions. The experienced government’s silence has encouraged the organisations to unite in the Assembly of Rabat "Equality without Restrictions" and to repeatedly interrogate the Prime Minister. The purpose is to demand a pure and simple concretisation of the public efforts his government is willing to make with regard to lifting all existing restrictions on the CEDAW and ratifying its optional protocol.

Equality without Reservation

We, representatives of women’s and human rights NGOs in the Arab countries, meeting in Rabat on 8-10 June 2006, decided to launch a regional campaign under the slogan “Equality without Reservation”. The campaign aims to urge Arab countries to withdraw reservations to the international Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and ratify its Optional Protocol.

The Arab World is a wide region containing enormous human and economic resources, and varied cultural resources that has greatly enriched the common human heritage.

At the same time, however, the Arab region is suffering from the greatest disparities between men and women regarding their enjoyment of human rights, persisting legal discrimination against women, and serious violations of their human rights.

• Out of 21 Arab countries 18 countries have ratified CEDAW, but these ratifications have been accompanied by serious reservations that contradict the very purpose of the Convention, particularly its principle of equality and non-discrimination between men and women.

• These countries have not harmonized their national legislation to comply with the CEDAW convention,.

• With only one exception, none of the countries in the Arab region have ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.

Hence:
We call upon Governments of the region to establish equality between men and women in dignity and civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and guarantee full citizenship for women through:

1- Withdrawing all reservations to CEDAW, and take appropriates to harmonize national legislations with CEDAW’s provisions

2- Ratifying the Optional Protocol of CEDAW, as a necessary tool for monitoring and addressing individual and collective violations of women’s rights, and combating violence against women.

We call upon all progressive forces in our region and all over the world to support this campaign at the regional and national levels, so that we can achieve our common goal: substantive equality between men and women without reservation.


Sign petition here : http://cedaw.epetitions.net

In 1993, the international community meeting in Vienna for the second world Conference on Human Rights strongly confirmed that women’s rights are fundamental human rights. In 1995, the fourth world Conference on women organized by the United Nations in Beijing ended by adopting a Declaration and an action Plan that, despite their drawbacks and limits, were supposed to give a new impulse to the important and “priority holder” mobilization of the international community in this issue.

“The impulse” of the Conference was to allow the adoption of the Optional Protol of the CEDAW Convention (OP-CEDAW) creating processes to deal with the violations of the rights recognized by the CEDAW Convention. Till today, if 179 countries in the world has already signed the CEDAW convention, only 71 adopted the OP-CEDAW.

The OP-CEDAW is of a major importance as it promotes the effective realization of women’s rights at the individual level. It also allows the development of a jurisprudence of women’s rights. Furthermore, it encourages the States Members to identify and admit the existence of discriminatory laws and policies, and implement the principles of the CEDAW convention. Finally, the Optional Protocol contributes to the creation of a larger public awareness of the human rights standards and discrimination against women.

Download the document of the presentation here: