Morocco – 2014 results

There is no specific legislation in place in Morocco to protect women from domestic violence, although general provisions against assault included in the Criminal Code can be applied.^[26] In 2002, the Moroccan government announced a national strategy to eliminate violence against women; according to the 2005 report to the Committee on the Convention on The Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), administrative authorities from all concerned government agencies are making concerted efforts to address the issue.^[27]Nonetheless, in 2012 women’s NGOs reported that the government takes the issue of domestic violence very lightly and that no concrete actions are put in place at the legal and institutional level to overcome this issue.^[28]

Since the introduction of the national strategy to eliminate violence against women, the 2006 report to the CEDAW Committee states that victims of domestic violence have better protection and more opportunity to leave the family home due to government initiatives to create new institutions such as a special violence investigation unit within the police force and shelters to protect battered women.^[29] Women also have easier access to divorce; the time required for divorce proceedings has been reduced to six months.^[30] However, according to a 2010 report by Freedom House, if women seeking help from the police are unable to prove that they have been abused, they are usually returned home, leaving them in a worse situation than before the complaint was filed.^[31]This acts as a powerful deterrent against reporting domestic abuse.^[32]

According to the U.S. State Department’s 2012 Human Rights Report, domestic violence is treated as a misdemeanour under Moroccan law. It is a high-level misdemeanour if the victim suffers injuries that results in more than 20 days disability leave from work. Otherwise, it is considered a low-level misdemeanour and rarely prosecuted.^[33]

According to Amnesty International, Article 496 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes hiding married women from “the authority to which she is legally subject,” could be used to penalise those harbouring women who flee abusive husbands.^[34] The U.S. State Department reported that this Article was used against domestic violence shelters in the past, but there were no reports of such incidences in 2012.^[35]

Nearly half of the population considers it acceptable for men to beat their wives in certain circumstances. Survey data from the 2003-2004 DHS found that when given a list of five reasons why a man might be justified in beating his wife, nearly 64% of women agreed with at least one reason.^[36]

A survey of women ages 18 to 65 by the Moroccan High Commission for Planning found that spousal violence (including psychological and economic, in addition to physical and sexual, violence) was the most common source of violence against women in 2009.^[37]According to the study, 3% of women who faced domestic violence reported it to a competent authority.^[38]Similarly, a survey of family courts revealed that relatively few women who had suffered from domestic violence approached police or initiated criminal proceedings. 68% preferred to resolve matters within the family, and those who did use the formal justice system, preferred to ask for divorces in family courts.^[39]

Rape is a criminal offence in Morocco.^[40]However, marital rape is not criminalised.^[41] Before January 2014, under Article 475 of the Criminal Code, it was possible for a rapist to escape imprisonment if he agreed to marry his victim.^[42] Victims had been pressured by judges and their families to marry their rapists in order to preserve family “honour.” According to the U.S. State Department’s 2012 Human Right report, there were many well-documented cases of this phenomenon in Morocco.^[43] In January 2013, the Government announced that it would repeal Article 475, following a year of sustained campaigning by women’s rights organizations, spurred by the suicide of 16 year-old Amina Filali, who had been coerced into marrying her rapist.^[44] Another year later in early 2014, the Moroccan parliament officially adopted a law to amend the Article by lifting immunity for rapists and preventing them from marrying their victims.^[45]

The penalty for rape ranges from five to 30 years’ imprisonment and depends on the circumstances of the crime. The prison sentence is longer if the victim was a minor, disabled, or pregnant, as well as if the victim lost her virginity during the rape. For the case of healthy, non-minor victims, the penalty is double if the victim had been a virgin (ten to 20 years’, instead of five to ten years’, imprisonment).^[46]Reportedly, in at least one case, a medical exam was administered in a rape case in an attempt to determine when the victim lost her virginity.^[47]Amnesty International has called the distinction between virgin and non-virgin victims of rape in Morocco “both discriminatory and degrading.” In addition, the organization noted that the articles on rape fall under the “decency” section of Morocco’s Criminal Code, suggesting that rape is a crime against a woman’s “honour” rather than her physical integrity.^[48]

Sexual Harassment is criminalised in Morocco only in limited situations. An amendment to Morocco’s Employment Code in 2003 recognises sexual harassment in the workplace as an offence when committed by an employer, the head of the company, or the institution against the employee.^[54] Under the Criminal Code, abusing a position of authority by issuing orders, threats, coercion, or other means to obtain sexual favours is punishable by up to two years of imprisonment and up to 50,000 Moroccan Dirham.^[55] The law does not fully define the harassing act, leaving it up to a judge to decide what specifically constitutes such harassment, nor does it include harassment conducted by someone other than an authority figure. Reportedly, only few victims pressed charges against their employers for fear of losing their job, proving the charge,^[56] or facing disapproving reactions from family, friends, and co-workers.^[57] According to the World Bank, implementation and enforcement of sexual harassment laws remains weak in Morocco.^[58]

In early November 2013, a new draft law on violence against women, with provisions to extend the scope and penalties for sexual harassment, was published on the website of the Government’s General Secretariat. It was drafted by the Ministry of Social Development, Family, and Solidarity, in coordination with the Justice Ministry.^[59] However, this draft law is under negotiation with Parliament and women’s rights NGOs.^[60]Women’s rights groups complained that they were excluded from the drafting process and accused the Islamist-led Government of seeking to dilute the bill through changes.^[61]

According to a Freedom House report, there is no evidence to suggest that female genital mutilation (FGM) is practised in Morocco.^[62]

According to the U.S. State Department, “Morocco is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. Some Moroccan girls from rural areas as young as six or seven years old are recruited to work as maids in cities and often experience conditions of forced labour, such as non-payment of wages, threats, restrictions on movement, and physical, psychological, or sexual abuse.”^[63]

According to the Freedom House report, so-called ‘honour killings’ do occur in Morocco, but are less prevalent than in other parts of the region. Police are often reluctant to intervene, seeing such crimes as a family matter.^[64] However, rather than removing the clause in the criminal code that allowed men convicted of assaulting or murdering his wife if he caught her in the act of adultery to receive a lighter sentence, this has been extended to female defendants accused of assaulting or murdering adulterous husbands.^[65]

Abortion is legal in the first six weeks of pregnancy in cases where the woman’s mental or physical health is in danger. Consent of the woman’s husband is required unless the chief medical officer of the province or prefecture agrees that her health would be endangered by the pregnancy. Illegal abortions are criminalised by up to two years’ imprisonment for the woman undergoing the abortion, and up to five years for those carrying it out.^[66] There are no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. In practice, many doctors reportedly carry out unauthorized abortions in Morocco.^[67] About a dozen of them are serving prison sentences.^[68]According to Chafik Chraïbi, Professor of Gynecology at Mohamad V University, about 900 abortions—often illegal and dangerous—are performed daily in Morocco, including 600 by medical practitioners and 300 by at-home methods.^[69]

Women in Morocco have the legal right to use contraception, and to access information about family planning and reproductive health.^[70] The Ministry of Health ran mobile clinics supplying family planning services to remote rural areas and conducted systematic home visits to encourage use of contraceptives.^[71] Knowledge of contraception among women in Morocco is nearly universal,^[72]and usage rates are also quite high. According to the 2003-2004 DHS, 63% of women reported that they currently used a method of contraception as a form of family planning; 54.8% used a modern method.^[73] However, contraception was also seen primarily as a woman’s responsibility; just 3% of men reported using a modern method of contraception.^[74] 12% of women age 15-49 (married or in a union) declared having  unmet needs for family planning.^[75] According to the Population Reference Bureau, Morocco has been “a success story” in expanding its family planning services throughout the country; however, gaps in unmet need across socioeconomic groups persist.^[76]