The topic of “the social and economic constraints of the family code and the current reform” was the focus of a symposium organized by the Parity and Equality Forum, yesterday, Friday, in Tetouan, in the presence of academics and political, women’s, human rights and associative actors.
The participants in the symposium unanimously agreed that the Family Code, when it was issued in 2004, created a “quiet revolution” at the level of the contents contained therein, whether with regard to approving the principle of equality between the sexes, or consolidating the rights of the child and the rights of women.
The participants recalled the debate taking place in general regarding the Family Code, and the presence of voices calling for a review of some of the requirements of the Code, following it became clear that “there is an urgent need to amend its requirements to keep pace with the social and economic transformations that Moroccan society has witnessed in recent years, as some gaps emerged that resulted from the practical application following More than 18 years have passed since its issuance” from the perspective of interventionists.
In this context, Sharafat Afilal, President of the Forum for Equity and Equality, the women’s organization of the Party of Progress and Socialism, stressed the importance of workshops to reform the Family Code, considering that this demand has become urgent, following the speech of His Majesty King Mohammed VI in 2022, on the occasion of the twenty-third anniversary of His Majesty’s accession. on the throne of his blessed ancestors.
In her speech, Afilal mentioned the political, social and economic rights approved by the Constitutional Document of 2011, in order to implement equality and its mechanisms of fairness, and non-discrimination between men and women, recording a number of imbalances in the implementation of the Code, including those related to the legal guardianship of the mother, especially in light of The case of divorce, as well as the problems associated with the marriage of minors, and lineage.
For his part, Ahmed Abu Al-Alaa, a professor of private law at the Faculty of Legal, Social and Economic Sciences in Tetouan, considered that the Moroccan legislator’s enactment of the Family Code did not come to the woman or the man, but to the family, recalling the amendments that affected the personal status law under the previous constitutions of the Kingdom, before the adoption of the Code, and what Upon its release, it received national and international acclaim.
The same speaker also stopped at what he saw as “the misapplication of the contents of the Family Code, and the resulting obstacles due to the misunderstanding of legal texts.”
This symposium falls within the initiative of the Parity and Equality Forum to plead for the reform of the provisions of the Family Code at the level of the various regions and regions of the Kingdom, to open a discussion with civil society actors and the components of the women’s movement regarding the prospects for workshops to reform the Code, in line with the contents of the constitution and international covenants ratified by the Kingdom.
The forum seeks to open a public debate on the problems and difficulties that accompanied the implementation of the requirements of the Family Code, as it is an important legal mechanism that directly touches the most important issues of concern to Moroccan women, through regional meetings at the level of various regions of the Kingdom.
