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» Profile Grant: El Amane
Morocco is at a critical moment for human rights, particularly for women’s rights and for justice. In December 2003, King Mohamed VI established a ‘Truth Commission’ to investigate serious human rights abuses committed by the state during the reign of his father, the late King Hassan II. The next month, in January 2004, the King signed unprecedented reforms to the Mudawana, or Family Code, which governs issues of personal status such as marriage, divorce and inheritance. The Mudawana has been used to deny women their basic human rights. Both of these developments provide important opportunities for the human rights community to press for structural and lasting change. At the same time, however, human rights groups report that the government continues to violate basic rights as part of its counter-terror campaign against Islamists. Other human rights concerns include police violence against sub-Saharan migrants living in Morocco and continued discrimination against Amazigh (Berber) communities in rural areas.
The Fund for Global Human Rights is helping Moroccan rights activists take advantage of existing opportunities. The Fund supports human rights organizations working to ensure that the Truth Commission leads to systemic reforms of the justice system to protect against future abuses. And, to ensure that the Mudawana reforms translate into improvements in women’s lives, the Fund supports local and national women’s rights organizations as they press police and local officials to honor their obligations under the new law. The Fund's grants also go to efforts to document and denounce current human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture, illegal expulsion of migrants freedom of expression, and violations of Moroccans's economic and social rights.
The Fund aims to provide sustainable support for human rights organizations. To that end, we maintain a long-term focus on specific countries and regions where we believe strategic grant-making can make a difference in advancing human rights protections over time. The Fund has had a grants program in Morocco since 2004.
