CAT/C/MAR/CO/4
torture and ill-treatment in accordance with the Manual on Effective Investigation
and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment (the Istanbul Protocol). The State party should also evaluate the
effectiveness and impact of such training.
The Equity and Reconciliation Commission and the question of reparations
29.
The Committee takes note of the information provided by the State party on the
considerable amount of work that was done between 2003 and 2005 by the transitional
justice mechanism, the Equity and Reconciliation Commission, to investigate the gross,
large-scale and systematic human rights violations that took place in Morocco between
1956 and 1999. The investigations have clarified the circumstances surrounding many of
these violations, including numerous cases of enforced disappearance. They have also led
to the award of compensation in various forms to many of the victims. The Committee
remains, however, concerned by the fact that the Commission’s work was incomplete,
inasmuch as it did not encompass the violations that took place in Western Sahara, and that
some cases of enforced disappearance had yet to be resolved when the Commission brought
its work to a close in 2005. In addition, the Committee is concerned by the fact that the
work of the Commission may have led to the de facto impunity of the perpetrators of
violations of the Convention committed during that period, since none of them has been
prosecuted to date. Finally, the Committee is concerned by reports that not all the victims or
families of victims have received compensation and that in some cases the compensation
awarded has been neither equitably distributed nor adequate or effective (arts. 12, 13 and
14).
The State party should ensure that the National Human Rights Council, which has
been assigned the task of completing the Commission’s work, continues with its efforts
to establish the facts surrounding the cases of enforced disappearance between 1956
and 1999 that have not yet been resolved, including those connected with the situation
in Western Sahara. The State party should also step up its efforts to ensure that
victims of torture and ill-treatment receive redress in the form of equitable, sufficient
compensation and support for as full a rehabilitation as possible. To that end, it
should introduce legal provisions to protect the right of torture victims to equitable
compensation that is commensurate with the harm suffered.
Cooperation with United Nations mechanisms
30.
The Committee recommends that the State party increase its cooperation with
United Nations human rights mechanisms by, inter alia, authorizing visits on the part
of such mechanisms as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special
Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and the Special
Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.
31.
The Committee invites the State party to consider acceding to the main human
rights instruments to which it is not yet a party, including the Optional Protocol to the
Convention against Torture, and to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal
Court.
32.
The State party is encouraged to ensure the broad circulation of the reports
that it submits to the Committee and the Committee’s concluding observations
through official websites, the media and non-governmental organizations.
33.
The Committee requests the State party to provide it, before 25 November
2012, with information on the measures undertaken in response to its
recommendations on: (1) providing or strengthening legal safeguards for detainees;
(2) conducting prompt, impartial and effective inquiries; (3) prosecuting suspects and
GE.11-47997
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