The National Human Rights Council (CNDH), alongside human rights defenders worldwide, commemorates International Women's Rights Day on March 8, 2025, under the theme “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.” This slogan calls for action to unlock equal rights and opportunities for all, ensuring the empowerment of women and girls for a future where no one is left behind.
Gender-Based Violence: A Major Human Rights Violation
As the CNDH Chairperson affirms, this slogan will remain incomplete and meaningless as long as violence against women and girls persists in all its forms. Gender-based violence is "one of the most widespread human rights violations in the world." It affects all social and economic groups, threatening women’s and girls’ health, dignity, dreams, safety, and independence.
Silence and underreporting contribute to its persistence, fueled by misguided beliefs that sometimes justify or even deny its existence, considering it a "natural" part of relationships between men and women.
CNDH's Commitment to Women's Rights and Safety
On International Women’s Day, the CNDH Chairperson reaffirms its unwavering commitment to defending the dignity of women and girls and advocating for their rights. The organization emphasizes the necessity of combating and addressing gender-based violence, in line with Morocco’s constitutional principles and international commitments under the treaties ratified by the Kingdom.
Violence That Erases Human Will
In this context, the CNDH launched a nationwide campaign titled “Manskotch Ala El Onf (Speak out against gender-based violence)” in 2021 during the annual UN campaign against gender-based violence. Lasting an entire year, the campaign encouraged survivors to denounce violence in all its forms and aimed to combat impunity.
The campaign culminated in a comprehensive report highlighting:
• Complexity of reporting procedures, including jurisdictional issues.
• Burden of proof placed on survivors, affecting the legal process.
• Inconsistencies in court rulings, where similar cases receive different legal classifications due to unclear definitions and the absence of criminalization for certain acts.
• Tendency to classify gender-based violence cases as misdemeanors rather than felonies, even when they may warrant more severe legal classification.
The CNDH has also consistently called for redefining rape in the draft criminal law to include marital rape and urged for a broader implementation of protection measures under the Law on Combating Violence Against Women.
Statistics and Figures (2023 Public Prosecution Report)
• 85,909 complaints of violence against women.
• 51% of cases involve husbands as the perpetrators.
• Cases of violence against women have risen by 59% since 2019, reaching nearly 30,000 cases in 2023.
• 30,410 victims recorded in 2023.
• Increase in violence against girls, with cases rising from 4,849 to 5,476.
• 3,227 girls were victims of sexual assaults.
Child Marriage: A Severe Violations of Children's Rights
The CNDH actively advocates against child marriage, considering it a severe form of sexual violence and a blatant violation of girls' rights that threatens their dignity, physical and mental well-being, and overall development.
Notable efforts include the year-long national and regional campaign in 2019, titled "Abolish the Exception… Restore the Norm", which advocated for amendments to Morocco’s Family Code to eliminate exceptions allowing child marriage. The CNDH has consistently issued recommendations against child marriage in its thematic and annual reports from 2019 to 2023.
Beyond fighting this form of gender-based violence, the CNDH also advocates for prioritizing the best interests of girls, recognizing that child marriage as a form of violence and discrimination.
Combating all forms of gender-based violence is an urgent priority for enabling women and girls to fully exercise and enjoy their rights. Achieving true gender equality and ensuring the empowerment of all women and girls is impossible without eradicating violence.
