Rabat – Morocco’s National Council for Human Rights (CNDH) has called on the government to “solidify urgent reforms” to protect children from all forms of violence, especially sexual violence.
The calls came during a meeting organized by the council on Tuesday that focused on sexual violence towards children and brought together academics, researchers, and civil actors.
The CNDH also called on lawmakers to end the “political hesitancy that affects its decisions on pressing social issues.”
Speaking at the meeting, CNDH President Amina Bouayach said that “justice is rarely achieved in cases of violence against women and girls,” drawing attention to various social and legal issues that arise in such cases.
Among those are a tendency for victims to abandon their complaints due to societal pressures, lenient sentences against offenders, and an inconsistent application of the law.
Bouayach renewed the call to reform Morocco’s judicial system and to recategorize crimes of rape and assault as sexual violence, as per international standards, and with harsher punishments.
The CNDH meeting also discussed topics such as the psychological effects of sexual abuse on victims and civil society’s role in protecting children from sexual violence.
The issue has been in the spotlight again in Moroccan society, as outrage has been mounting following a court sentencing three defendants convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl to only two years in prison.
Read also: Tiflet Rape Case: Court Postpones Appeal Trial to Next Week
The sentence immediately caused widespread condemnation, with many activists and citizens expressing that it was not commensurate with the severity of the crime.
The crime, which took place near the victim’s house in Tiflet in northwestern Morocco, resulted in pregnancy, with the victim giving birth to a baby boy at only 12 years of age.
Following the sentencing, the victim’s family spoke out against the culture of victim-shaming and silence around such acts in Morocco, emphasizing that their neighbors knew about the rape before the victim’s own family.
