Electronic Science – Abd El-Ilah Shahboun
In commemoration of the twenty-first anniversary of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, under the slogan “The death penalty… a path paved with torture,” the National Council for Human Rights held a press conference this Thursday morning at its headquarters in Rabat.
The Council considered that the advocacy calling for the abolition of the death penalty will continue, especially during the next phase, which will witness a discussion on reforming the criminal law, in order to defend the priority of the right to life and call on the Moroccan authorities to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which aims to Abolish this penalty.
In her opening speech, Amina Bouayyash, President of the National Council for Human Rights, said, “Here we meet again in this space as opponents of the death penalty, in law and practice (the death penalty… is constant torture). As happy as we are to meet you and to meet our supporters, we feel sorry that the situation remains as it is.” It is what it is. Despite the passage of many years, the Council and our friends in the coalition and networks for abolition have continued to remind with urgency of the necessity of breaking off, legally and practically, with the death penalty.”
She added that what is painful is the psychological and social torture that results from the practical suspension of the punishment while keeping it present and present in the legal text, which in its severity is similar to someone who decides to punish the perpetrator once, then renews his decision the next day, and repeats this for many years, which drives us to Commemorating the World Day Against the Death Penalty this year, noting that the National Council is consistent with the abolition of the death penalty, first as a national institution keen to protect the right to life as an inherent, absolute and inalienable right, and indeed the rest of the other rights cannot be implemented without it.
Amina Bouayyash continued that the Council’s involvement in the campaign calling for the legal and practical abolition of this punishment does not conflict with the rights of victims, as some are trying to push to justify its retention, stressing that the Council considers that the considerations that are being adopted to not abolish the death penalty are unjustified, but rather perpetuate resistance. Modernizing the Moroccan criminal law, and even abolishing it today, constitutes an urgent necessity as it is a criminal legal foundation for a state committed to human rights principles and standards, especially since Morocco has no longer implemented them for nearly a third of a century, since it no longer keeps pace with the philosophy of punishment in our present era.
For his part, Abdel Rahim Jamaei, coordinator of the Moroccan Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, called on our country’s officials to have political boldness and take the political and constitutional decision to change penal policy within the framework of a modern view of criminal policy, adding that the penal system in an important number of countries in the world has witnessed profound winds of change. , in the philosophy and concept of punishment, a change in the rules of criminal justice and defense rights, and the charters, recommendations and model rules brought about in areas that all contribute to building wise and serious justice.
Al-Jamai explained that there is no choice but to permanently abolish the death penalty as it is the correct position that strengthens the society of human rights, democracy and justice.
In turn, Hakima Ouhjou, on behalf of the Network of Female Journalists and Journalists for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, said that the tasks of male and female journalists are to highlight that this punishment contradicts human rights, and is even the cruel expression of the violation of these rights, noting that in the context of these tasks a reference guide has been completed that includes All international and regional agreements related to the death penalty and the comments issued by the Human Rights Committee, with regard to the right to life stipulated in Article VI of the Covenant, as well as the “moratorium” of the United Nations General Assembly to suspend this punishment, which is the “moratorium” for which Morocco abstained from voting. In his favor so far.
She continued: “One of the most prominent challenges of our professional work is the serious violations of professional ethics by those impersonating journalists, as they set up guillotines on their websites and blogs and work to incite public opinion with every discussion of amending the criminal law or the occurrence of a heinous crime, and they make themselves judges defending justice and retribution.” .
As for Malika Ghbar, coordinator of the Moroccan Network of Women and Men Education Against the Death Penalty, she considered educational institutions to be one of the most important approaches to human rights education and thus a gateway to reducing the gap between retaliatory behavior and rational behavior thinking about it, provided that efforts are combined to work on raising awareness and sensitizing the need to Confronting perceptions hostile to human rights based on rhetorical justifications that fuel positions clinging to the death penalty in the name of religion, noting that the network sets itself the task of defending the right to life at the level of providing tools and skills for defending the right to life, promoting it, and advocating for awareness of it as a means of social life. Together we condemn violence and defend human rights.