We are happy to share that we have now submitted the UPR shadow report on the right to freedom of expression with the UN Human Rights Council. You can read the report here.
The report was submitted in collaboration with: Adala UK , Global Human Rights Defence, terre des hommes Deutschland, terre des hommes schweiz and Western Sahara Campaign.
As you will see, in this report we list the ways in which the Kingdom of Morocco is protecting this right for its people, and in what ways this protection can be improved. We discuss both the legal protection of this right (are Moroccan laws written well so that this right is properly protected?), as well as the protection of this right in practice (do Moroccan authorities such as the police and the courts protect this right in practice?). In some cases there is adequate protection, but as you will read in the report, in many cases there is room for improvement. In some cases both the Moroccan law and the practice by authorities are actually violating international human rights law.
At the end of the report you will find a list of recommendations that we have drafted based on our research. These are recommendations to the Moroccan government, and we hope that other States who are part of the UN Human Rights Council will encourage Morocco to take up these recommendations.
The report comes with two attachments: first, a list of suggested advance questions: this is a list of questions that other States might ask Morocco. Asking the state under review questions about the human rights situation is part of the UPR process. Second, an OCHCR Matrix with a list of recommendations made during the UPR session in 2017: this is an overview of all the recommendations that states made during the last UPR cycle. The overview includes these recommendations, the position of Morocco (whether they supported the recommendation or not), and lastly, whether they indeed implemented these recommendations. As you can see in the overview, unfortunately, none of the recommendations related to the right to freedom of expression were implemented.
