Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – Morocco’s Ministerial Delegation in charge of Human Rights has strongly rejected claims and accusations of human rights violations made against the country in the 2023 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, stressing human rights advances in the country and highlighting Rabat’s willingness to engage constructively with non-governmental organizations.
In a statement released today, the Moroccan delegation took issue with HRW’s apparent anti-Moroccan bias, arguing that the section of the organization’s report dedicated to Morocco lacks neutrality, objectivity, and professionalism and belies its fixation on bringing the Moroccan authorities into disrepute.
According to the Moroccan ministerial delegation, HRW’s latest report merely rehashes accusations from previous reports based on one-sided and outdated narratives promoted by biased third parties out to undermine Moroccan interests. In particular, the report shows Human Rights Watch’s inability to present a realistic picture of the human rights situation in Morocco, the delegation argued, accusing the international NGO of using its reports to settle political scores with Morocco.
Most of the allegations HRW made against Morocco in this latest report date back more than a decade, or nearly a decade, while others related to issues that were dealt with within the framework of full respect for legal legitimacy and human rights, the Moroccan delegation said.
The NGO reproduced several passages from previous reports, the delegation further lamented, saying that this demonstrated HRW’s bias and the lack of sufficient evidence to support the claims made in its report.
Unable to keep up with the dynamics of human rights in Morocco, the delegation argued, HRW routinely ignores Morocco’s openness to various forms of international monitoring of the human rights situation in the country and is only interested in propagating unfounded and misleading allegations.
The Moroccan delegation cited the latest HRW report’s stance on the Western Sahara case as evidence of the NGO’s anti-Moroccan bias. The report notably ignored Rabat’s widely reported and UN-approved efforts over the past two decades to bring the territorial dispute to a lasting and sustainable resolution, the delegation said.
Read also: Morocco Responds to HRW’s ‘Biased Allegations’
In particular, it added, HRW’s report left out the increasing international support for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan to instead give prominence to unproven allegations that Morocco is “blackmailing” or “bullying” its Western allies into recognizing its sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Even more disturbing, the delegation deplored, is HRW’s silence on the grave human rights violations that have long taken place in the Tindouf camps and the recent terrorist attacks carried out by the separatist Polisario Front in southern Morocco.
“This proves that the organization has turned into an instrument for those who oppose Morocco’s territorial integrity,” the delegation concluded.
