Rabat – The National Council for Human Rights (CNDH) has summoned Mohammed Salah Tamek, the delegate-general of the national Penitentiary and Reintegration Administration, to follow up on a report on the situation of prisons in Morocco published in 2012.
On October 31, in the presence of government and national NGO representatives including Human Rights Minister Mustapha Ramid, Tamek will inform the CNDH about the initiatives his administration has undertaken to combat the country’s poor prison conditions.
In its 2012 report on prison conditions in Morocco, the CNDH described a “crisis of prisons,” finding that prisoners suffer from a proliferation of abuse, overcrowding, and discrimination based on gender, sex, and color.
The report noted the persistence of abuses committed against detainees, including inhuman or degrading treatment, the existence of places of torture in some prisons, and the abuse of power in the interpretation of offenses.
Malfunctions in prisons were also observed among vulnerable groups, including women, people with disabilities, foreigners, and drug addicts. For the CNDH, these categories suffer more than others from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and are deprived of their rights because of stigma and discrimination based on sex and color, in the absence of necessary and adequate care from correction facilities.
In May, Tamek decried alarming prison overcrowding throughout the country, partially stemming from high rates of pre-trial detention.
Morocco hasan estimated prison population of 80,000 inmates, 40 percent of whom are still awaiting trial.
