Rabat – The Interministerial Delegation for Human Rights (DIDH) announced on Friday the law graduates have suspended their week-long hunger strike in protest.
The hunger strike came in the form of an escalated protest in reaction to the perceived irregularities of results from the latest bar examination in Morocco. In December of 2022, law graduates took to the streets of the capital Rabat protesting “unfair” results and contesting the credibility of the examination.
On Friday, the DIDH published a post on its official Facebook that reads: “The Interministerial Delegation for Human Rights has followed, with great interest, the communications and efforts made by representatives of the Ministry of Justice for the suspension of this hunger strike and preserve the right to life.”
The post further added that the Ministry of Justice has opened a channel for dialogue with the law graduates. “The Ministry of Justice is ready to receive a delegation of strikers to discuss with them in the next two weeks,” it explained.
Suspicious nepotism gained traction online as social media users shared the list of the candidates who passed the bar exam which showed that the majority of surnames on the list belong to affluent families in Morocco.
The suspicions gave rise to an internet-wide social media upheaval that called for the justice ministry to open an official investigation.
In response, the justice minister Abdellatif Ouahbi dismissed the allegations and came under fire for saying that his son – who also passed the bar exam-, succeeded in doing so because “his dad is rich.”
The comments added fuel to fire, and the online campaign protesting the alleged nepotism gained a new purpose, calling for the justice minister to step down. The minister came out with a half-hearted apology, saying that he is sorry his statement was misinterpreted.
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