Morocco’s Lower House Adopts Draft Law on Violence Against Women

Rabat – The house of representatives (lower house) adopted, on Wednesday by a majority vote, a draft bill on fighting violence against women.

The draft bill was approved during a plenary session with a majority of 83 votes versus 22 votes against.

The bill is aimed at providing Morocco with a coherent and clear law that would ensure the minimum of conditions to legally protect battered women, said a report by the committee of justice, law-making and human rights at the house, adding that the law also forbids sex-based discrimination.

It also lays provisions to identify behavior deemed as violence against women and criminalize it, set up a mechanism to assist women and children victims of violence, and establish mechanisms of coordination between actors in the field of violence against women.