New York, 29 February, 2012 (MAP)
Moroccan minister of solidarity, woman, family and social development Bassima Hakkaoui said, on Tuesday in New York, that Morocco’s new Constitution provides many opportunities for the empowerment of women.
Hakkaoui told the 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which opened on Monday at the UN headquarters, that Morocco witnessed the democratic momentum triggered by the Arab Spring in accordance with its own specificity reflected by the broad political and national consensus, with the reform process crowned by a new Constitution which anchored a new democratic rights-based era.
Indeed, the Minister said, the new Constitution provides, from the preamble, for the fight against all forms of discrimination, noting, in this regard, that the government platform “is an action plan which reflects the provisions” of the Constitution.
This action plan includes, among other things, strengthening women’s representation in all fields as a priority step towards combating discrimination, exclusion and marginalization, through measures promoting gender equality and equality between women as a whole, both in urban and rural areas, the minister said.
She stressed that Morocco, aware of the vital role played by rural women in sustainable development, adopted a result-, indciator-based approach for the next five years.
Hakkaoui insisted that Morocco was among the first Arab countries to have set the economic empowerment of rural women as a lever for their emancipation.
The minister noted that the National Initative for Human Development (INDH), launched in 2005 with the aim of reducing poverty, social exclusion and vulnerability, is based on an essential frame of reference, namely that “the human being is the core of development”.
