On the sidelines of the Rabat World Human Rights Pre-Forum, the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) pays tribute, on Friday 17 February 2023, to national and international human rights defenders, in recognition of their contributions to promoting and protecting human rights.

Ms. Amina Bouayach, CNDH Chairperson, says that paying tribute to six prominent personalities, from different national and regional contexts, at this event, is a moment of recognition for their actions to protect and promote human rights... She also adds that it is an opportunity to reflect on the convergence of human rights defenders’ life paths, particularly from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and evoke their contributions to developing standards, practices and jurisprudence, using their struggles to defend universal values and principles.

List of personalities honored on the occasion of the Rabat World Human Rights Pre-Forum for:

Late Abdelkader Azrie
Former Head of the Mediation and Relationships with Parliament Unit at the CNDH. He was a former CNDH member and President of the CNDH Regional Commission in Rabat-Kenitra and a former member of the House of Councillors, a trade unionist, human rights activist, and a prominent Moroccan and Maghreb social activist.
He died at the beginning of this month (February 2023). He contributed to trade union actions, democratic transition, and civil action.

Ms. Estela Barnes de Carlotto
Prominent Argentine human rights defender.
She is a President of the May Square Grandmothers organization, which aims to search for the identity of children kidnapped in Argentina.  She received the United Nations Human Rights Prize in 2003. She is the Honorary Chair of the Third World Human Rights Forum (March 2023, Buenos Aires).

Mr. Albert Sasson
Member of the Commission consultative de révision de la Constitution (Advisory Commission to Review the Constitution).
He led a fruitful career at UNESCO since 1974. He is a former Special Adviser to the UNESCO Director General. He is also a former Dean of the Rabat Faculty of Sciences and a Founding member of the Hassan II Academy for Sciences and Technology. He is a former member of the Advisory Human Rights Council (CCDH), the Royal Institute for Strategic Studies and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE). He is a prominent national and international consultant.

Mr. Raji Sourani
Lawyer and human rights defender. He is the Founding President of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. He was awarded several times for his work on human rights. He is currently a member of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Vice-President of the Federation International des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme (FIDH) and President of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Organization for Human Rights.

Ms. Soyata Maiga
She graduated from the National School of Magistracy (ENM) of Paris and the National School of Administration in Bamako. She is President and Vice-President of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR). Ms. Maiga also serves as Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa (2007-2015) and Chaired the Working Group on Indigenous Communities in Africa (2011-2019) as well as the Committee for the Protection of Persons Living with HIV (2015-2019).

Ms. Latifa Jbabdi
Defender of human and women's rights.
She is a former member of the Advisory Council for Human Rights (CCDH) and the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER). She is a founding member of several human rights organizations. In 1998, she was appointed as an ambassador of civil society to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and Coordinator for Morocco and the Arab world March for Women. She was a Coordinator of the National Council for the Reform of the Personal Statute Code (Modawana) in 1992.

The International Center for the Promotion of Human Rights in Argentina (CIPDH-UNESO) is the CNDH partner in organizing the Rabat Pre-Forum. It will supervise the organization of the third World Forum for Human Rights, to be held in Argentina in March 2023.

The Rabat World Human Rights Pre-Forum will last for two days. It is organized in Rabat as a prelude to the third World Human Rights Forum in Argentina (Buenos Aires, March 2023). Around 300 Human rights defenders from 50 countries participate in the Pre-Forum. They discuss transitional justice, migration and climate change issues. They will develop recommendations to contribute to the development of human rights actions and to ensure the protection of rights and freedoms.