Rabat - Driss El Yazami, head of the National Council of Human Rights (CNDH), received the civilian decoration of Officer of the Order of Leopold on Wednesday, January 24 in Rabat.
Rabat – Driss El Yazami, head of the National Council of Human Rights (CNDH), received the civilian decoration of Officer of the Order of Leopold on Wednesday, January 24 in Rabat.
Currently in Morocco for a working visit, the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Didier Reynders, presented El Yazami with the award..
Leopold’s Order holds the highest distinction in Belgium. Established by Leopold I in 1832 as a dynasticorder of merit and dynastic, it is the first and the oldest order of Belgium.
El Yazami was born in Fez in 1952. He is a graduate of the Paris-based Centre de formation et de perfectionnement des journalists. He was appointed by King Mohammed VI to chair the National Human Rights Council on March 3, 2011.
He has also served as a member of the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH), the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (Moroccan Truth Commission) and the board of the Spanish Three Cultures Foundation. Furthermore, he is the director of Générique, an association that specializes in the history of foreigners and immigration in France , as well as the chief editor of the journal Migrance.
Additional accolades included El Yazami’s tenure as is the former vice-president of the French League of Human Rights (LDH);
Former secretary general of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH);
Former member of the Executive Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network; chairman of the Arab Network of National Human Rights Institutions (2013);
Chairman of the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) (2013);
Head of the civil society section within the National Steering Committee of COP22, organized in Marrakech in November 2016.
Since 2004, he has presided over theEuro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support to Human Rights Defenders as president, while also maintaining board membership with the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration in France.
As CNDH president, El Yazami is also a member of the Superior Council of Judicial Power and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, in addition topresident of the Francophone Association of National Human Rights Commissions (AFCNDH) since 2012.
He was awarded the Order of the Throne, Commander Class on July 30, 2011 and the Order of National Recompense, Commander class on July 30, 2013. He was also awarded the Legion of Honor (Knight Grade) of the French Republic on July, 14, 2010.
