Presentation by Mr. Driss Benzekri, The Commission’s Activities in the Period Between January 7, 2004, and April 12, 2004

The Commission’s chair and members were appointed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI (may God save Him) on January 7, 2004, in Agadir, after His Majesty agreed on and approved the recommendation submitted to His Majesty by the Human Rights Advisory Council, on the basis of Article 7 of the Royal Decree number 1,00,350, promulgated on April 10, 2001, in relation to the reorganization of the Council.

Article 7 provides for the creation of a Justice and Reconciliation Commission to settle cases of serious human rights violations committed in the past. The royal speech made on the occasion of the Commission’s inauguration constituted a guiding reference for the works of the Commission, and a basis for its approach, since His Majesty the King, in outlining the Commission’s general competence and goals, considered that it is a national commission for truth, justice, and reconciliation.

In keeping with this basis of reference, the tasks of the Commission are part of the process of democratic transition launched in Morocco. This is a national project and a civil society action aiming to build the future and face the internal and external challenges. The actors of this project are people who are familiar with Morocco’s past, but for whom its difficulties and inconveniences are not obstacles. On the contrary, the Commission tries to turn these disadvantages into a source of power and energy to consolidate the pillars for building a democratic society where all citizens enjoy their rights freely, and fulfill their duties with a sense of commitment to and awareness of the rule of law.

To update the Council on the Commission’s work on its preliminary stages, this report focuses on the following subjects:

  Drafting the statute and the action plan;

  Defining the tasks of the Commission;

  Structures and programs of the action plan;

  A brief presentation of the action plan’s major axes;

  Administrative organization; and

  A brief presentation of the activities.

Drafting the Statute and the Action Plan

During the preparatory period, the Commission held nine periodic meetings in addition to an average of 12 sessions held by its task groups.

These meetings were dedicated to preparing the Commission’s draft statute and action plan, and setting up internal implements for the administration and action of the Commission’s task groups.

In the meantime, meetings were held with representatives of national truth commissions from several countries. In addition, consultative meetings were held with international experts in this field, especially from the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), based in New York.

The Commission received dozens of memoranda submitted by human rights organizations, the Moroccan Bar, and the families of victims of serious human rights violations, and conducted field visits to 18 villages and cities nationwide.

The periodic meetings, the conclusions reached, and the series of meetings and consultations have allowed the Commission to draw its statute. The latter was approved by Royal Decree and published in the official gazette on April 12, 2004. The said Dahir defined the Commission’s tasks and structure on the basis of its competences, as follows.

Defining the Tasks of the Commission

The Justice and Reconciliation Commission has the following tasks as part of its competence.

Unveiling the Truth

  Proving the seriousness and types of human rights violations committed in the past;

  Conducting investigations, receiving testimonies, studying official archives, and collecting information and data provided by any party in order to uncover the truth;

  Conducting investigations in cases of forced disappearances of victims whose fate remains unknown;

  Exerting the utmost effort to investigate cases that have not yet been solved;

  Revealing the fate of the disappeared and finding adequate solutions concerning cases of people whose death was confirmed;

  Determining the responsibility of governmental bodies, or others, in the violations and events under investigation; and

  Including the findings of research, investigations, and analysis in relation to cases of human rights violations and the contexts in which they took place in the final report.

Redressing Damages and Restoring Dignity

Redressing damages through financial compensation, rehabilitation, integration and restoration of property and dignity; repairing damages in all possible and appropriate ways according to the investigations and research included in the truth-seeking process.

Recommendations and Guarantees for the Prevention and Nonrecurrence of Violations

The final report, as an official document of the Commission, should include recommendations and proposals in view of remembering and guaranteeing that past violations will not recur and that a solution to their consequences will be found. The proposals and recommendations should also guarantee the restoration and consolidation of faith in the law and respect of human rights.

Reconciliation

Participation in the development and enrichment of dialogue and the establishment of the bases of reconciliation in order to support the democratic transition of the country, build the rule of law, and spread the values and culture of citizenship and human rights.

The Commission’s Structure and Action Programs

In order to set forth these competences, the Commission has drawn up various action programs, including those relating to investigations, research, reparations, relations with victims and society, cooperation with national and international organizations, the media, and documentation.

To carry out its tasks, the Commission is organized into three different task groups:

  Task group in charge of investigations;

  Task group in charge of damage-redressing; and

  Task group in charge of research and studies.

Mission of the Task Group in Charge of Investigations

  Investigating cases of forced disappearances of victims who are still unaccounted for, whether they be alive or dead;

  Collecting all forms of information and documents, and receiving testimonies related to events of past violations.

Mission of the Task Group in Charge of Damage-redressing

  Acting as an arbitrator on the questions concerning compensating the victims of forced disappearances and arbitrary detention and their inheritors for physical and moral damages, on the basis of rules of justice and equity;

  Redressing other damages inflicted upon the victims of forced disappearance and arbitrary detention.

Mission of the Task Group in Charge of Research and Studies

  Conducting the research and studies necessary to the accomplishment of the tasks of the Commission;

  Collecting and analyzing data, information, and conclusions reached by the other task groups, to be used in the Commission’s final report.

Brief Presentation of the Major Axes of the Action Plan

First Axis: Truth Unveiling

Activities:

  Checking if the acts constituted serious human rights violations and were committed in a systematic and/or intensive way;

  Verifying the nature, reasons, and seriousness of violations, through research and in the circumstances, factors, context, and reasons that led to committing these acts, and their justification;

  Determining the responsibility of the authorities, institution, and other organizations whose involvement in these acts has been established;

  Verifying if these violations were the result of a calculated planning by the state or any of its bodies, or by a political organization or any other group, for a political reason; and

  Coordinating and facilitating the collection of information and evidence directly or through hearings of the people concerned (victims or their representatives) in order to verify their identities and determine their fate and the nature and seriousness of the damage they sustained.

Ways of Intervention:

  Documentation research: Analyzing the existing reports, academic studies conducted by national and international nongovernmental organizations, and official archives (police minutes, judgments, etc.).

  Field investigations: Listening to victims, their families and representatives, and law-enforcement authorities; conducting investigations into the cases and places of the violations.

  Analysis of established cases: These do not require a field investigation as much as a study of the available information.

  Consultation: Concerning cases of persons whose death has been proven, and in keeping with administrative measures and methods that are respectful of religious rituals and the predominant traditions in order to determine places of burial and way to deal with inheritors and families. Consultations about people whose fate is unknown will also take place.

  Report: The final report will include the findings of these studies, investigations, and analyses on violations and their contexts, as well as the Commission’s recommendations and proposals.

Second Axis: Damage-redressing and Restoring Dignity

Activities:

  Taking decisions concerning requests submitted by victims, their families, or inheritors as of February 13, 2004;

  Holding hearings for victims and witnesses involved in the submitted cases;

  Preparing files and reports that will be submitted to the Commission (the latter will then take a final decision on financial compensation); and

  Preparing proposals and recommendations with regard to the victims’ integration and rehabilitation.

Ways of Intervention:

  Financial compensation: Preparing proposals of decisions on arbitration concerning compensation for physical and moral damages.

  Rehabilitation and repossession: Proposals and recommendations with regard to measures concerning health, social, and professional rehabilitation and restoring property.

  Permanent relations with victims and families: To collect the information and data needed to complete files on repair damages of all types and levels of gravity, and to intervene in order to tackle urgent health conditions.

  Proposals and recommendations: Concerning the restoration of the dignity of individuals as well as groups at the individual and collective levels.

Third Axis: Recommendations and Guarantees for the Prevention and Nonrecurrence of Violations

Activities:

  Preparing research and studies;
  Collecting and analyzing data, information, and conclusions reached by the other task groups;

  Organizing public consultative forums on issues related to the tasks of the Commission;

  Drawing up reports on the historical context of the relevant events;

  Conducting thematic studies on the major events during which serious human rights violations took place; and

  Participating in drawing up the final report.

Ways of Intervening:

  Research and studies: Reviewing books, studies, and reports written by researchers in universities and national and international nongovernmental organizations and international specialized organizations.

  Analysis: Collecting and analyzing data on the historical, political, social, and legal context of serious human rights violations.

  Report and proposals: Preparing the plan of the final report and the proposals on legal, institutional, and educational matters that would achieve reconciliation, develop the culture of human rights, consolidate the rule of law, and support democracy.

Fourth Axis: Reconciliation

Activities:

  Creating conditions for free and serious dialogue on the foundations of reconciliation through the organization of forums, meetings, and field visits to the concerned areas;

  Organizing hearing sessions for victims;

  Organizing sessions with leading figures who play an important part in defining issues and events that have a direct or an indirect connection with the tasks of the Commission;

  Presenting proposals to restore dignity at a collective level;

  Setting up an audiovisual documentary record, in the prospect of creating a memorial center/centers of past events; and

  Encouraging universities and institutes for research and creativity to open up onto events related to the serious human rights violations committed in the past.

Ways of Intervention:

  Hearings of victims and families, and receiving testimonies in order to allow people to hear the former and to know their sufferings.

  Permanent communication with the public through newsletters, advertisements, and the preparation of the adequate communications channels.

  Assistance and help preparing a program to help victims and their families in cooperation with human rights organizations and all the institutions concerned.

Administrative Organization

In order to carry out its tasks and activities according to the strategic axes mentioned above, the Commission organized its administration in a way that allows it to be flexible and adaptable to the progress of the Commission’s work.

The Commission’s administration was organized as follows:

Administrative units linked to the task groups: The Commission hired a first group of specialized administrative staff to follow up and carry out each task group’s action plan. In addition, several assistants specialized in various fields were made available to the task groups according to each group’s needs, missions, and programs.

Technical departments: Some of them already exist and some are being established. They cover the following specialties:

  Information, communication, and publications;

  Drafting and computer-processing of data and information;

  Documentation, archiving, and management of files;

  Reception and orientation of victims and inheritors;

  Lobbying; and

  Secretariat for the Commission and its chairmanship.

Furthermore, a team of executives was given the task of conducting a preliminary processing of requests submitted to the Commission. This team counts and sorts out the requests, and conducts a preliminary analysis of their content. This gives the Commission a first idea of the types of requests submitted to it and enables it to make a preliminary breakout of the violations.

Likewise, a group of administrative staff members prepared a general database for the Commission. It is an essential tool that facilitates the access to information related to the victims and the task of managing the files.

Brief Presentation of the Commission’s Activities

Considering that the settlement of past serious human rights abuses is a project of the society and the state for the present and the future, and a process through which lessons of the past can be learned, the Commission was keen on adopting an approach of partnership with all the concerned parties from society and the state. The choice was confirmed in the statute of the Commission.

During the preparatory phase, which extended from the inauguration of the Commission to the publication of the Dahir approving its statute in the official gazette, the Commission worked on identifying and carrying out a series of priority activities:

  Reviewing, checking, and updating the lists of victims of forced disappearances who are still unaccounted for;

  Checking and updating the lists of missing persons whose death was established;

  Conducting studies and research on the political and historical contexts of the events linked to the serious human rights violations;

  Preparing a preliminary program of consultative and awareness-raising activities, conferences, and seminars on themes related to specific aspects of the Commission’s tasks and to the experience of truth and reconciliation organizations in other countries of the world; and

  Endeavoring to provide medical care to some urgent conditions.

Relations With Victims, Families, and Inheritors

During this period, the Commission undertook visits to 18 regions nationwide and met with 25 families of victims of forced disappearances. The Commission consulted with them and listened to their views on issues related to the process that it initiated and redressing the damages. The inheritors of missing people expressed their views on the most appropriate formula for tombs and burial rituals, and rehabilitation. Likewise, the Commission received the committee of coordination with the families of missing persons who are unaccounted for, comprising 18 families of such persons, and held individual meetings with the families of the following:

  Houcine Manouzi
  Abdelhaq Rouissi
  Omar Benjelloun
  Medhi Benbarka
  Mohamed Esslami

Relations With National and International Human Rights Organizations

In its relations with international organizations, the Commission has sought to exchange ideas and information on issues related to its competence, especially consultative meetings and sessions with the International Center for Transitional Justice, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Euro-Mediterranean network of human rights, and the Canadian center “Democracy and Rights.”

At the national level, the Commission held a series of meetings with human rights organizations, political parties, and youth sections of political parties. It also took the initiative to set up a correspondence with various human rights advocacy groups in Morocco, studied and addressed various memos from these organizations and associations, including Moroccan human rights associations based abroad, notably in Europe.

These meetings covered a presentation of the Commission, means to enhance cooperation, support, and assistance for victims, programs for promoting awareness, exchanging information, and consulting archives in a bid to unveil the truth.

Relations With Public Authorities and the Media

During this period, the Commission sent letters to the Ministry of Human Rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister’s Office regarding issues associated with forced disappearances and other matters related to professional integration of victims of past human rights abuses and political and unionist detainees. It also held four work sessions with the Ministry of Health to search for means of settling victims’ urgent health conditions.

Regarding its relations with the media, the Commission published two communiqués on the start of the process of receiving the victims, the inauguration of the Commission, and the main points raised in the Royal Speech. In addition, the Commission explained its approach and priorities and expressed its commitment to exert its utmost efforts to complete its mission. At the promulgation and publication in the Official Gazette of the Dahir approving its statute, the Commission held a press conference to explain the statute and the axes of the action plan. The Commission has also created a site on the Internet that will soon be effective.

I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to the members of the Commission and the administrative staff for their efforts. My thanks also go to the members of the Council for whom I have the highest esteem, the authorities and human rights organizations, as well as to all those who have contributed and are contributing, directly or indirectly, to the consolidation of this process.

Rabat, April 23, 2004