Distr.

GENERAL

E/C.12/1994/SR.10/Add.1
13 May 1994


Original: ENGLISH
Summary record of the second part of the 10th meeting : Morocco. 13/05/94.
E/C.12/1994/SR.10/Add.1. (Summary Record)

Convention Abbreviation: CESCR
COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS


Tenth session


SUMMARY RECORD OF THE SECOND PART (PUBLIC)*
OF THE 10th MEETING


Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva,
on Friday, 6 May 1994, at 3.30 p.m.


Chairperson: Mr. ALSTON


CONTENTS


Consideration of reports (continued)

(a) Reports submitted by States parties in accordance with articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant

Morocco (continued)




* The summary record of the first part of the meeting appears as document E/C.12/1994/SR.10.

The public meeting was called to order at 3.30 p.m.

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS (agenda item 4) (continued)

(a) REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLES 16 AND 17 OF THE COVENANT

Initial report of Morocco (continued) (E/1990/5/Add.13; E/C.12/1994/WP.4; HRI/CORE/I/Add.23)

1. Mrs. BONOAN-DANDAN, referring to issues relating to articles 7 and 8 of the Covenant that had been raised by the Committee at the 9th meeting, drew attention to a specific case in which labour laws had been violated in Morocco by the company Huileries de Meknès in Rabat, and asked the delegation for comments on the incidents in question. According to the report of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association (document GB/259/7/14 of March 1994), a series of violations by that company of labour laws and standards and fair labour practices had led workers to establish a trade union local of the Democratic Confederation of Labour (CDT), to which the management had responded by dismissing 11 workers. Protests by union workers had resulted in attacks by the police in which several workers had been injured or arrested. The ILO Committee had written to Morocco about the matter but had received no response; and it had accordingly made a number of recommendations.

2. Ms. HODGES (Representative of the International Labour Organisation) said that the Committee on Freedom of Association had before it nine cases of alleged violations of trade union rights in Morocco. Three of the cases had already been examined in full, four would be examined at the Committee's next session and two had received no reply from the Government of Morocco.

3. The CHAIRPERSON said that the Committee traditionally drew on the work of the ILO and requested information from Governments on issues raised in ILO documents. In the present case, the Committee would welcome a timely response from the Government of Morocco.

4. Mr. BENHIMA (Morocco) said that the Government would need time to gather the information required to respond both to the ILO and to the Committee. He would do his utmost to ensure a prompt reply but could not promise that it would be ready before the end of the Committee's current session.

5. The CHAIRPERSON invited the Committee to put further questions to the delegation of Morocco on article 10 of the Covenant.

6. Mrs. JIMENEZ BUTRAGUEÑO asked for comments by the Moroccan delegation on press reports to the effect that female mutilation was being performed on Moroccan women residing in France and Spain.

7. She also wished to know what was the legal status of the abandoned children mentioned in paragraph 78 of the report (E/1990/5/Add.13).

8. She asked for clarification of the reasons for which a man might repudiate his wife and whether women had a similar right. What was the applicable legislation? In connection with repudiation, she had noted on page 20 of the written reply of Morocco the expression "retraite de continence" and asked whether it meant that a repudiated or divorced woman was denied sexual rights.

9. Mr. CEASU said that he had understood that under the new Moroccan legislation children born out of wedlock did not enjoy the same rights as those born to married couples. He asked what legal or moral justification could be given for that approach, which apparently applied also to adopted children.

10. Were there any figures on the number of abandoned children and what percentage of them were taken into care?

11. Mr. SIMMA asked, in connection with paragraph 77 of the report, how the social protection of children was carried out in practice. The 1992 report of the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations stated that "... traditional industry has been effectively excluded from inspection activities as is evidenced by the widespread employment of children in carpet factories" and that "the Government has been lax in conducting inspection activities because of a lack of will to enforce protective labour legislation and a desire to promote foreign investment". Did the Moroccan delegation admit that practice differed from law in Morocco?
12. At the previous meeting the Moroccan representative had asked the Committee to provide evidence of the criticisms of the state of economic rights in Morocco so that it could be checked. He quoted from a statement in the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions annual survey for 1993 to the effect that two activists of the ICFTU affiliated national centre OMT, Abdelhaq Rouissi and Houcine El Manouzi who had disappeared in 1964 and 1972 respectively, were reportedly still alive but detained in a secret prison. He suggested that the Committee should ask the Moroccan Government to provide additional information on the persons and facts referred to in that survey.

13. Mr. GRISSA said that he had understood that working children between 12 and 16 years of age were subject to medical supervision. If children started work at 12, how did that square with their right to education? What was the legal age at which children could start to work in Morocco?

14. Mr. BENHIMA (Morocco), replying to Mrs. Bonoan-Dandan's questions raised at the previous meeting, said that in pre-Islamic Arabia daughters had been buried alive at birth. With the advent of Islam, the status of women was raised and polygamy was tolerated. The laws of Islam had evolved and today in Morocco a man could have two wives. He could take a second wife only with the consent of the first wife and having informed the second wife of the existence of the first. Thus there were stringent limits on polygamy, which was carefully monitored.

15. As to unequal treatment of men and women under the inheritance laws, the Shari'a provided that one eighth of an inheritance went to the wife or wives, the justification being that the deceased husband had been sole provider for the entire family, often an extended family. Views on that matter were of course changing, and although no one could modify the Shari'a by decree, it would eventually be modified as society evolved.

16. He assured the Committee that his Government was taking whatever steps were needed to do away with inequalities between men and women generally. It was mainly a question of changing attitudes through information. Repudiation as well as divorce existed in Morocco, although repudiation was allowed only under strict conditions and on the basis of adequate justification. If, for instance, a woman was repudiated on the ground of adultery, the other parent was granted custody of the children. In the case of divorce, women were now being at least consulted before a divorce was granted, and women themselves could initiate divorce proceedings on grounds such as abandonment, or failure to provide support. The expression "retraite de continence" was the waiting period before remarriage (idda); it was not a sanction or a denial of sexual rights but a form of protection for women, the purpose being to verify that a woman was not pregnant by the previous husband.

17. With regard to the freedom of the couple and the way in which marriage was understood, he said that marriages were increasingly entered into freely, as against arranged marriages; and although there were still some arranged marriages, there were hardly ever any forced ones.

18. On the question of illegitimate children, no law forced a father to recognize a child born out of wedlock. Nevertheless, the structure of Moroccan society ensured that such a child did not have an inferior status. He could be raised and given a name by the family of the mother or the father and have the same access to health care and educational privileges as any other child. Alternatively, the child could be raised by benevolent volunteer associations or in settings such as the SOS villages. He could provide no figures as to the number of illegitimate children in Morocco, but in any case they would be approximate.

19. Female circumcision was not practised in Morocco, or indeed anywhere in the Maghreb.

20. Mr. GRISSA observed that even if illegitimate children were taken in by benevolent associations, they still did not have a father and could not inherit from a father and therefore suffered by comparison with others. Also, to be labelled illegitimate was a very heavy, lifelong burden. He asked whether the law obliged a man who had made a woman pregnant to marry the woman and to recognize his child, as happened in Tunisia, where legal adoption was also allowed.

21. Mr. BENHIMA (Morocco) said that children were sometimes conceived in very transient and unstable relationships, and that adoption was not recognized in the Shari'a.

22. Mr. GRISSA countered that the Shari'a was 1,400 years old and civilization had progressed since its day. It was less serious to violate the Shari'a than to violate the rights of a child. The Shari'a should not be interpreted in an anti-humanist sense.

23. The CHAIRPERSON asked that comparative approaches be avoided, since the Committee's focus was on the situation in Morocco. Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, countries were, in fact, allowed to follow the practice of kafala as stipulated in the Shari'a rather than legal adoption. Nevertheless, it was proper for the Committee to inquire into the manner in which that or any other practice protected the rights of a child under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

24. Mr. BENHIMA (Morocco) said that Morocco found the kafala (granting or taking custody of a child) a perfect form of adoption: children born out of wedlock were given a name and exactly the same conditions and advantages as through affiliation, and often received a living donation in place of an inheritance by the person raising them.

25. Mr. NAJIB (Morocco) said that the minimum working age for children in Morocco was 12. The Government believed that was too young and was considering revision of the Labour Code to raise it to the age of 14 or 16. It should be borne in mind, however, that most of Moroccan society was a rural society with its own special rhythms, where children often began to work at an early age. The Government had to consider whether the children were being discriminated against in that context. The Government organized medical visits and teams of inspectors who monitored such children according to strict rules, such as the prohibition of night work. Generally, children working at an early age would be found in the fields and in artisans' shops, not in factories. It was certainly true that not all who should be were in school. The education budget of the country did not cover all school-age children. However, if one considered that there were 800,000 births per year out of a population of 25 million, the enormity of the problem facing the Government could be appreciated. For children not in school, the Government offered appropriate vocational training, in rural areas as well.

26. Estimates of the number of abandoned children or children in difficult circumstances in Morocco ranged from 20,000 to 30,000. It was not only the Government which took responsibility for the care of such children. Indeed, religious institutions probably bore a greater share of the burden than did the State. There were also secular associations providing for such children; and, through the practice of kafala, simple families took them in.

27. Mrs. AHODIKPE asked whether the courts could be requested to search for an unknown father. She also wanted to know what percentages of children were doing adult work.

28. Mr. BENHIMA (Morocco) said that any mother with adequate proof could certainly try to establish paternity. It was difficult to provide the percentages Mrs. Ahodikpe requested.

29. Mr. LAGHMARI (Morocco) pointed out that the term "illegitimate" was never used in the Code of Nationality or the Code of Personal Status, but rather the term "child born out of wedlock". The law assumed responsibility for such children: they were given the mother's name and they were allowed until the time of their maturity to seek to establish the identity of their father. Moreover, the law stipulated a whole series of investigation and conciliation mechanisms in such situations.
30. Mr. TEXIER observed that the Moroccan delegation portrayed some difficulties - like the Shari'a taboos - as ineluctable, and used the concept of a "dual society" as an excuse. Yet it only compounded the injustice to recognize that society had a double standard. One might ask, then, why Morocco had ratified the Covenant at all, given its view that a whole section of society had to remain beyond the reach of change and that there was a whole series of insurmountable obstacles to overcome.

31. The CHAIRPERSON invited the delegation of Morocco to reply to the list of issues in connection with article 11, which read:

"Article 11. Right to an adequate standard of living

32. Mr. EL HACHTOUKI (Morocco) said that Morocco had a population of more than 25 million, with 50 per cent living in rural areas. Since independence, Morocco had implemented a series of policies to try and improve living conditions for the population in rural and urban areas. Economic and social development programmes aimed specifically to encourage investment in the housing sector. The level of demand in rural and urban areas was such that problems inevitably arose. The Government tried to involve local communities, public and private bodies and organizations in providing accommodation. The Ministry of Housing's annual programme provided for 30,000 to 40,000 housing units. The housing sector had made a valuable contribution to growth in the economy of Morocco through the scale of investment.

33. By way of response to growing housing problems and in an effort to identify the needs of the population, particularly those sectors with limited means, the Government of Morocco had carried out a survey to identify shanty towns and estimate the amount of inadequate housing in urban and other areas. In 1982, 13 per cent of households had lived in shanty towns or in poor accommodation. By 1992, the figure had been reduced to 6.8 per cent. The Government had set up an ambitious programme to ensure adequate and affordable housing, adopting an integrated approach providing not only for accommodation but also for roads, schools and services. Two hundred thousand housing units were to be built, providing accommodation for all sectors of the population.

34. In 1993, the number of urban households stood at 2,643,000. Fourteen per cent of accommodation had been deemed inadequate. One hundred and seventy-four thousand households lived in acceptable accommodation but had to share with two people or more. In 1987, 840,000 housing units had been needed in urban areas, a figure which had now fallen to just over 544,000 units. In 1991, 48.4 per cent of households owned their own home. Eighty per cent of households had a kitchen in their accommodation, 44 per cent had a shower or a bath, 76 per cent enjoyed running water and 87 per cent had electricity.

35. There were very few evictions in Morocco. Those that did take place were authorized by the courts. Decisions always took into account the social and material circumstances of people faced with eviction.

36. Mr. GRISSA noted that paragraph 87 of the report (E/1990/5/Add.13) stated that "the portion of the daily wage of agricultural workers to be paid in cash has been increased from 27.03 to 31.08 dirhams". He asked what made up the difference in workers' wages and if the delegation did not agree that payment in kind violated a worker's freedom of choice and restricted his right to spend his salary as he so wished.

37. Mr. SIMMA said that a report published by Habitat International Coalition in 1992 had stated that in July 1990, the Government of Morocco had announced that 100,000 citizens of the city of Fez would have to leave the city under the pretext that it had become overcrowded and was falling into decay. He asked if the residents had been evicted and, if so, if and where they had been resettled.

38. Mrs. BONOAN-DANDAN said that paragraph 91 of the report (E/1990/5/Add.13) stated that the external debt was a very heavy burden on public finances and a serious drain on the GDP. She asked what efforts were being made by the authorities to cushion the impact of external and internal debt on the population and on the economy.

39. Ms. TAYA noted that Morocco had spent heavily on building dams and on its irrigation policy. However, the main beneficiaries of Morocco's dam-building and export-oriented crop policy were large-scale wealthy farmers rather than consumers or small farmers. The high cost of dam building was, undoubtedly, a contributory factor to the heavy external debt which was being paid for by the population through taxation. She asked whether the Government of Morocco had ever assessed the effectiveness of foreign aid with regard to the poorer sectors of the population and if it was used to improve living conditions, and what percentage of the population lived below the poverty line or in abject poverty.

40. Mr. LAGHMARI (Morocco) said that Morocco's dam-building policy was not designed to increase exports but to encourage projects which would benefit the country as a whole. The dams were successful not only in irrigating the land under cultivation but also helped to provide drinking water, electricity and helped Morocco to weather the ravages of drought.

41. In response to the question raised by Mr. Grissa, he said that the wages referred to in the report were those paid to workers in the agricultural sector.

42. Mr. EL HACHTOUKI (Morocco) said that there had been no forced evictions
in the city of Fez. Fez had become one of Morocco's largest industrial towns and the price paid for its expansion was a serious housing shortage. Unfortunately, one of the least successful remedies had been the construction of low standard but cheap accommodation. The municipal authorities and the Government of Morocco were according Fez priority in their campaign to eliminate poor housing. What had been referred to as forced evictions was in fact a resettlement policy in which inhabitants had been encouraged to move from areas subject to mud-slides or of substandard housing. A construction and land improvement programme for the areas cleared was in place.

43. The CHAIRPERSON invited the delegation of Morocco to reply to the List of issues in connection with article 12, which read:
"Article 12. Right to physical and mental health

44. Mr. LAGHMARI (Morocco) said that despite the fact that Morocco was a developing country every effort was being made to provide a range of health services. Private initiatives were encouraged in the health sector and the poorest sectors of the population were widely protected. Public and private health services existed side-by-side, with the private sector being further sub-divided into profit- and non-profit-making sectors. The bulk of medical services were provided by the State, represented by the Ministry of Health, but the private health sector provided a certain dynamism and made an important contribution to meeting the health needs of the population. Major progress had been made in Morocco's health services with the provision of family planning, including for example, benefits, the free distribution of contraceptive pills and campaigns to raise awareness, the vaccination of children and women of child-bearing age, the medical supervision of pregnancy and births, campaigns against malnutrition, communicable diseases, health and safety campaigns in schools and universities, care for the aged, rehabilitation, the construction and refurbishment of hospitals and improved supplies of basic products. In 1992, 3,779 doctors worked in the public sector and 3,224 in the private sector. There were 1,982 private pharmacists and 23,654 members of paramedical teams. There were over 100 hospitals, with 26,000 beds. Moreover, the Ministry of Health adopted a fresh plan of action every year to promote public health by providing access to care, in decent conditions that respected the dignity of the individual. There was much, however, that called for improvement: hospitals were under-used, health care was unevenly distributed around the country and too great a proportion of expenditure - 75 per cent - was borne by the Ministry of Health. It was therefore intended to introduce compulsory medical insurance, with free health care for those unable to afford insurance.

45. Mr. CEAUSU asked whether Morocco was encouraging the use of contraception to combat population growth.

46. Mr. NAJIB (Morocco) said that the family planning programme was proceeding very successfully. Contraception of one sort or another was used by 43 per cent of women.

47. Mr. LAGHMARI (Morocco) said that the hospital attached to the University of Morocco had been equipped with new facilities, including a specialized area for the provision of a whole range of family planning services, both practical and educational.

48. The CHAIRPERSON invited the delegation of Morocco to respond to the list of issues relating to article 13 of the Covenant.
"Article 13. Right to education

49. Mr. LAGHMARI (Morocco) said that nomadism no longer existed in Morocco. Former nomads were now settled, thanks to economic and social structures giving them the same facilities in the way of education, health care and housing as in the northern parts of the country. He added that Tuareg confined their wanderings to other countries of the region and were not inhabitants of Morocco. The settlement of nomadic populations had enabled their children to benefit from Morocco's free and compulsory educational system. Attendance had risen, although conditions remained better in the towns than in the countryside. It was hoped to improve the situation by building more schools in rural areas and providing free school meals. As for those who had not completed their primary education, training centres had been set up to enable them to enter the labour market. Centres had also been set up for the education and training of disabled children. In addition, Morocco had accepted the challenge of International Literacy Year, 1990, when the King had announced plans to teach 200,000 people to read a year, with priority for rural areas, backed up by all available national expertise, and an effective follow-up for the newly literate. He produced figures to show that by and large the literacy rate had improved between 1983 and 1993. With regard to staff in the public education system, he said that teachers came into the same categories as other civil servants. Hours of work and a hierarchical structure also, however, played a part in determining their salaries. Depending on those and other factors they were placed in civil service scales 7-11. Their salaries rose in line with those of other civil servants. Turning to the issue of private schools, he said that, subject to the conditions laid down in Act 1-59-049 of 1959, such schools were encouraged at every level. They remained, however, under the control of the Ministry of National Education, which supervised their programmes and authorized certificates issued by them. Human rights were taught at secondary and university level, usually in the framework of Islamic studies, civics, history, philosophy and Islamic thought. A separate human rights studies course had recently been introduced. The aims and principles of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were fully taken into account in the Moroccan educational system.

50. Mrs. JIMENEZ BUTRAGUEÑO asked for clarification of the literacy figures. She also wanted to know whether there were any courses on human rights that contrasted such rights as expressed in international instruments and as understood by Islam.

51. Mr. SIMMA asked what was meant by teachers' hours of work: was it the teaching load itself - amounting to some 27 hours in his country - or did it include hours spent on preparation, producing a total of some 40 hours a week? He also asked the representative of Morocco to expand on the statement that teachers' salaries rose in line with those of the civil service and to explain the system of salary scales in more detail. Lastly, he requested a fuller answer to question 36 from the list of issues. He wondered whether a university teacher who within the framework of his research expressed views on the ownership of the Western Sahara, for example, that ran counter to the government line ran the risk of imprisonment. It was a very important matter.

52. Mr. TEXIER noted that children in Morocco, particularly in rural areas, did not always attend school. He urged the Moroccan Government to work out and adopt a detailed plan of action to implement compulsory education for all, in accordance with article 14 of the Covenant. He requested detailed non-attendance figures and asked what steps were being taken to deal with the problem. Secondly, he asked to what extent university classes were conducted in Arabic. As a Frenchman, he was naturally gratified to hear French being spoken by the representatives of Morocco, but he was opposed to the use of French in Moroccan universities because it would exclude students who came from poorer backgrounds.

53. Mr. NAJIB (Morocco), replying to Mrs. Jimenez Butragueño's question regarding the literacy figures, explained that in 1983 0.10 of the illiterate population and been taught to read. That figure had reached a high point of 1.59 in 1990 and although the 1993 figure stood at 1.12 the progress made was none the less encouraging. With regard to teachers' hours of work, he said that salaries were based on teaching hours, in conjunction with other factors such the hierarchical system. He added that scale 11 applied to university teachers. Professors' salaries and status were equivalent to those of a senior manager in the civil service. On the question of the language of instruction, he said that most university teaching was conducted in Arabic, but some classes were held in French.

54. Mr. LAGHMARI (Morocco) said that secondary school education in the public sector was conducted in Arabic; children could choose English, French or Spanish as second languages for study. Technical studies at university level took place in French. On human rights, he said that it had not been taught as a separate subject until 1990. Previously it had formed part of the philosophy and international studies faculties of the university; it had since been expanded to cover the study of international instruments, with particular emphasis on justice and law enforcement officers. As for the question of academic freedom, he disclaimed any special knowledge, but in his view academics had a professional role to perform while abiding by professional ethics. Their right to express their personal opinions had to be exercised in the context of the law. He noted that article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognized that the freedom to manifest one's beliefs might be subject to limitations prescribed by law, which were necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals.

55. Mr. NAJIB (Morocco) said that the figures for school attendance in 1991 were 62 per cent overall, which broke down as 86 per cent in urban areas and 44.1 per cent in rural areas. He offered to provide the Committee with the school enrolment figures as well.


56. The CHAIRPERSON noted that the Moroccan delegation had still to reply to the questions posed under article 15, as follows:
"Article 15. Right to take part in cultural life and to
enjoy the benefits of scientific progress
and the protection of copyright

57. Time was running out, however, so the Committee would content itself with the information in the written notes supplied by the Moroccan delegation. He gave the floor to the representative of the Ministry of Culture, who wished to make a brief statement, since he would be unable to attend the Committee's next meetings.

58. Mr. BADRY (Morocco) said that his country had chosen to ratify the Covenant because it was committed to the international ideals it contained. It was aware that there remained in Morocco some cultural resistance to those ideals, but long-standing attitudes - such as those concerning relations among men or relations between men and women - could not be changed overnight and it would be wrong to impose priority on the written over unwritten laws. Given the shortness of time, he would convey in writing the rest of his statement, which he believed to be important.

59. Mr. BENHIMA (Morocco) thanked the Committee for the pertinence of their questions, which had given his delegation cause for reflection; Morocco would try to answer the Committee's concerns in its next report. He added that the report by Habitat International Coalition, quoted by Mr. Simma, constituted an unjustified slur on the Government of Morocco.

The meeting rose at 6.10 p.m.


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