Morocco assesses reparations programme

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A group of human rights officials and experts recently shed light on Morocco's progress in enforcing the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (EIR).

"The Moroccan experience in the field of reparations is a substantive addition to the experiences of truth commissions around the world," said National Human Rights Council (CNDH) chief Driss El Yazami, whose group organised the February 11th seminar in Rabat.

"It contributed to the rehabilitation of many areas long synonymous with exile, deportation, disappearances, marginalisation and exclusion," he added.

More than 130 projects have been funded in 13 cities that experienced human rights abuses during the "Years of Lead" under Hassan II. The reparations initiative was launched in 2007 as part of the EIR recommendations.

"There are projects launched in a final form, and there are others requiring reflection in order to find the most effective ways to ensure their sustainability," El Yazami said.

The council is working to launch three programmes related to history and memory, he added. They include Al-Hoceima Museum, the Museum of Dakhla and the Museum of Death, which will be located between the areas of Agdz and Kelaa Mgouna, he specified. The projects will be completed "within the next three years".

Eneko Landaburu, head of the EU delegation to Morocco, praised Morocco's reparation programme as "a unique and unprecedented experience in the Arab Maghreb".

"The programme has taken forms going beyond the symbolic dimension of reparation; the gains achieved by Morocco are adoption of a participatory methodology, creating spaces for dialogue and partnerships, and the establishment of bodies concerned with human rights in the areas concerned," he said.

"The EU is committed to continuing to keep up with implementation of the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission, especially at the level of preservation of history and memory as a primary part in the reconciliation series," Landaburu said.

Habib Nassar, MENA Programme Director at the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), told Magharebia that "the Moroccan experience is a pioneering, advanced experience, and it added much to the field of transitional justice".

"There are very important topics, such as ensuring participation of local groups in the management and development of projects, as well as introducing the preservation of memory to recall with symbolism the mechanism of reparation, since the projects included in this context are not purely developmental projects, but projects addressing human rights violations that occurred in the past," he added.

As part of the reparations programme, the Amal Association for Women and Development in Al-Hoceima region launched the "Cultivation of Roses" project, organisation president Fatima Zahra El Wazzani told Magharebia.

The initiative, worth 420,000 dirhams, comes in "an area that knew gross human rights violations", El Wazzani explained.

"The project aims to develop an alternative for the cultivation of cannabis, which is rife in the region, through training women in the cultivation of roses and creating returns for them, and changing the perception of inferiority women suffer in that district and sowing the spirit of hope in them," she said.

This content was commissioned for Magharebia.com.