Official Visit to Morocco (December 2018)

Following Special Rapporteur Achiume’s official country visit to Morocco, the report addresses persistent challenges in ensuring equal human rights for all, including Amazigh, black Africans, non-nationals, and religious minorities. While acknowledging significant achievements since the 2011 Constitution, it underscores the need for further efforts to secure racial equality and eliminate racial discrimination. The report identifies critical gaps in Morocco’s legal, policy, and institutional frameworks, such as the absence of comprehensive anti-discrimination laws, inadequate definitions of racial discrimination, and the lack of a dedicated body or national action plan to combat racial discrimination. The report also highlights specific issues reported by various groups: experiences in the Amazigh community including cultural and socioeconomic marginalization, structural exclusion, and racist stereotyping; challenges for migrants and refugees, especially those of black, sub-Saharan origin, including racial profiling, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced relocations, and xenophobic stereotyping affecting access to social services; and restrictions faced by Moroccan Christians and Baha’i in practicing their religion. It also commends initiatives to combat religious extremism among detainees, and overall  highlights the importance of an intersectional approach, and recalls that racial non-discrimination must be guaranteed for all, irrespective of sexual orientation and gender identity. The report concludes with recommendations for Moroccan authorities, the National Human Rights Council, civil society, the European Union and its member states, and United Nations agencies.