🔶68 preventive visits in 2024
🔶Strong engagement with the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture (NPM) and implementation of its recommendations:
🔹96% for the Royal Gendarmerie
🔹86% for the National Police
🔶 2948 interviews conducted with female prisoners (100%)

As the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture (NPM), operating under the National Human Rights Council (CNDH), concluded its fifth year, it carried out a total of 169 preventive visits to places of deprivation of liberty across Morocco by the end of 2024.

These visits included 70 police custody facilities, 59 prisons, and 16 courtroom holding cells, in addition to preventive visits to all 14 child protection centers, 6 psychiatric hospitals, and 4 elderly care facilities.

CNDH’s 2024 annual Report, which incorporates the NPM’s annual report, noted that 2024 saw the highest number of visits since the Mechanism’s establishment in 2019. Among these, 69 preventive visits focused specifically on female prisoners, covering 43 prison facilities and 2498 inmates, achieving complete 100% coverage.

The report commended the engagement of key national institutions to the Mechanism’s recommendations. The General Directorate of National Security has taken into account 86% of the recommendations. The institution has also implemented a range of structural measures nationally, reflecting its commitment to continuous improvement in preventing torture at national, regional, and provincial levels.

Similarly, the Royal Gendarmerie has taken into account 96% of the Mechanism’s recommendations, demonstrating strong cooperation and institutional dedication by the National Police and the Royal Gendarmerie to improving detention conditions in line with national and international standards.

The report also outlines key recommendations aimed at further strengthening protection of detainees’ rights. These include:
 

• Preserving dignity and privacy during searches

• Ensuring confidentiality in lawyer interviews

• Providing accessibility for persons with disabilities

• Documenting health conditions

• Upholding the best interests of the child

• Supplying personal hygiene items for women

• Ensuring transfers to healthcare facilities via equipped ambulances

• Restructuring and reforming procedures to prevent ill-treatment

• Respecting the separation of different categories of detainees

To be continued…

Human Rights 2024
Ensuring the Effectiveness of Rights and Freedoms 
Legislative Transformations and Challenges