The General Assembly (GA) of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) held, remotely, its third regular session, on Friday 4 December 2020, following the provisions of Law No. 76.15 related to the reorganization of the institution.

The GA approved an additional recommendation to the CNDH’s Memorandum on “The effectiveness of rights and freedoms in Morocco... For a new social contract” related to evoking history and preserving memory in the development process. Earlier last March, the GA approved in its second session, the Memorandum submitted by the CNDH to the Special Committee on the Model of Development.

The CNDH intended through this recommendation to stress the importance of preserving memory and promoting Moroccan history in all its tributaries to elaborate the new development model.

At this 3rd session, the GA also approved the CNDH's annual draft budget for the year 2021.

Furthermore, the GA deliberated on axes of the draft annual report on the situation of human rights for the year 2020. In this regard, CNDH’s members stressed the great importance of this report, given the circumstances imposed by the pandemic crisis and its consequences, which could limit the actual enjoyment of all rights and freedoms.

The program of the GA included presenting a report on the CNDH Bureau actions during the period from March to last November. It also scheduled reports on the activities of the permanent committees and national mechanisms. At this GA, stakeholders also presented a report on the installation of members of the CNDH’s regional commissions (between September 7 and October 27, 2020), during which the CNDH completed its institutional structure to enable regional commissions to conduct, as proximity mechanisms, their missions related to preventing violations, protecting, and promoting human rights, and interacting directly with citizens.

At the beginning of this session, the GA members paid respect to the memory of the two CNDH’s members who died after the last session: the late Ajmiaa Haddad and the late Mustapha Raïssouni.

They also congratulated the CNDH’s members and experts who had been elected by various UN bodies, where the Kingdom of Morocco became represented in eight contractual mechanisms and bodies out of 10.

Milestones between the two sessions (coincided with the lockdown period and the state of emergency)

In addition to the actions of permanent committees, national mechanisms, regional commissions, and the CNDH bureau meetings, the CNDH during this period did:

- Conduct advocacy missions on supporting groups suffering from vulnerability during the lockdown period, including women victims of violence, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees;

- Publish a call on business and human rights as entrepreneurs manage economic measures during the pandemic period;

- Call for a vote in favor of the UN recommendation to stop the death penalty;

- Submit an opinion on the draft Law No. 46.19 of the National Authority for Probity, Prevention and Fight Against Corruption;

- Submit a memorandum on draft Law No. 72-18 on the system related to targeting beneficiaries of social support programs and the establishment of the National Register Agency;

- Hold meetings with executive, judicial and elected authorities at the regional level;

- Interact with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and the UN agencies through the participation of the CNDH Chairperson, members and staff in debates and interactive meetings, in addition to the submission of thematic and progressive reports on the management of the Covid-19 pandemic by public authorities;

- Launch a campaign as part of the international campaign against violence against women and girls;
Participate and interact in the General Assembly of the GANHRI on: its best practices during the pandemic; the climate change; the approval of the 2019 annual report of the alliance, which highlighted the contribution of the CNDH in several areas at the regional and global level; the implementation of the CNDH’s recommendation on the establishment of a working group on women's rights and gender integration; (...)