Morocco has 'lively' civil society and 'independent' press, HRW says

Washington - Morocco continues to have a "lively civil society and independent press," the New York-based rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

  "Morocco boasts thousands of independent associations," HRW noted in its 2010 World Report, presented on Wednesday in Washington.
   The document adds that "many human rights organizations" are active in Rabat and Casablanca.
   The human rights watchdog notes that Morocco hosted several visits by foreign human rights associations and recalls "the pioneering work completed in 2005 by Morocco's Equity and Reconciliation Commission (ERC)."
   In this respect, the report underlines that the ERC was set up in order to shed light on the past rights violations and compensate thousands of victims.
   The International NGO recalls the visit Morocco by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during which she saluted the reforms that have enabled Moroccan women to "bring their considerable talents to strengthening
democratic institutions, accelerating economic growth and broadening the
work of civil society."
   Morocco ratified the International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities and lifted its reservations to the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Human rights watch says in the document.
   The international NGO underlines that Morocco hosted a visit in June 2009, by the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, "the first by the group in an Arab or African country," adding that "the group praised the ERC."