Report Calls for Breaking Silence on Violence Against Women in Morocco

Morocco’s National Council for Human Rights (CNDH) has presented its latest report, shedding light on the issue of violence against women and the need to tackle impunity.

Released on Friday this week and covering the period from September 2018 to the end of November 2022, the report emphasizes the importance of taking action to protect women’s rights and put an end to the culture of impunity regarding gender-based violence.

The CNDH points out various anomalies in both the courts and police stations, revealing that most judgments in cases of violence against women are delivered by male-dominated bodies chaired by male judges. has prompted questions about the lack of gender integration in the judiciary.

This situation is bound to prompt questions about the lack of gender integration in the judiciary, the report suggested, shedding light on the under-representation of women in criminal cases.

Victims of gender-based violence themselves report 96% of abuse cases, while the proportion reported by third parties is minimal (3,33%), the CNDH report found. It also draws attention to the issue of the right to defense, noting that 54% of female violence victims don’t receive legal assistance.

Culture of silence

CNDH highlights the ongoing deficiency in the fight against gender-based violence in Morocco, lamenting the yawning gap between cases reported to the police and those that make it through the justice system.

Because of the absence of reporting culture in Moroccan society, the normalization of violence, and the belief that it should be a private matter, most cases of violence go unreported in Morocco. The CNDH report also calls attention to legal matters such as the absence of a law that criminalizes marital rape and child marriages among other issues.

While noting that all these challenges persist across Morocco, the National Council for Human Rights also acknowledges the progress that has been made to tackle gender inequality and gendered violence.

The progress includes the immediate intervention of law enforcement and the initiation of judicial investigations into cases of violence circulating on social media, the report notes, emphasizing that social media has become a space that encourages the culture of reporting gender-based violence and crimes.

There has been a notable rise in reported cases of violence against women in Morocco, the report indicates, detailing that the number of complaints filed in 2020 reached 64,251. The figures increased to 96,276 in 2021 but slightly dropped to 75,240 in 2022.

The CNDH credits the increase in reported cases to the efforts made by support cells for battered women, whose primary mission is to provide support to victims of violence.

Toward the end of its report, the CNDH called for the repeal of articles 489 to 493 of the Penal Code; both articles criminalize out-of-wedlock relationships between consenting adults.

The Council concluded the report by reminding the media to make it their duty to raise awareness about gender-based violence among women, girls, and the society at large, and encourage a culture of reporting cases of sexual abuse and violence.