As part of the CNDH actions related to advocating for the abolition of the death penalty, the Regional Human Rights Commission of Casablanca-Settat (CRDH), organized on Thursday 25 February 2021, an online regional conference on the ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. The CNDH Commission seeks to further the advocacy campaign for Morocco to vote for the UN resolution on the abolition of the death penalty. It reiterates the CNDH position that calls for the Moroccan government to stop abstaining from the vote that lasted for 8 sessions since 2007. 

This resolution is submitted to the vote of the UN General Assembly every session. The last vote was last December 2020. The CRDH also calls for Morocco to engage in the international efforts to abolish the death penalty. Mrs. Saadia Waddah, CRDH President, underlined, in her statement, the constant and clear position of the CNDH for the abolition of the death penalty. The CNDH stressed its position on several national and international occasions, particularly in its memorandum on the penal code and the statement of Mrs. Amina Bouayach, CNDH Chairperson, at the 46th regular session of the Human Rights Council. CRDH President also highlighted the contradiction of the death penalty with the provisions of the Moroccan Constitution of 2011 that enshrine, in Article 20, the right to life as the highest human right. Experts and activists for the abolition of the death penalty took part in this event, particularly, the Moroccan Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, the Network of Parliamentarians for the Abolition of the Death Penalty and international activists from Tunisia and Jordan against the death penalty. 

The CNDH has long pleaded and defended its position for the abolition of the death penalty. On several occasions, it recommended the Moroccan government to join the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. 

The CNDH has 12 Regional Human Rights Commission (CRDHs) that contribute to fulfil the CNDH’s mandate at regional level.