MinnLawyer Blog

Minnesota-based Advocates for Human Rights is busy working on a national law on violence against women. If passed, the law would be the first comprehensive violence against women act in the Arab world that criminalizes domestic violence and sexual assault and provides for an order for protection remedy for victims.

The Advocates, Moroccan NGOs from across the country, and host Global Rights met in Errachidia, Morocco, from March 8-12 to draft the law. Cheryl Thomas, director of the Women’s Human Rights Program, represented The Advocates at the workshop.

Throughout the week, representatives of grassroots-level NGOs and local professionals from the justice, health, education and law enforcement sectors in Morocco participated in working sessions with the technical assistance of The Advocates and other international and Moroccan experts on legal reform, violence against women and human rights. The workshop consolidated the work completed by local “Thematic Working Groups” organized by NGOs in various regions of Morocco. The groups held 132 meetings in 15 cities, towns and villages across the country, and 318 local professionals and authorities concerned with violence against women participated. They elaborated a list of sector-specific proposals and suggestions for concrete legal reform, which serve as the basis for the text being drafted by the workshop participants.

Once finalized, the proposed law — which will include both penal and civil provisions — will be distributed to members of Parliament and government officials in order to contribute to the development of a bill and to enhance the debates during the amendment and promulgation process.

The Advocates has been working in Morocco since 2008 with Global Rights and Moroccan NGO partners to promote a law on violence against women.