MOROCCO, August 4 - The Interministerial Delegation for Human Rights (DIDH) stressed that the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has revealed its true face as an instrument in the hostile and systematic campaign against Morocco.

In a statement released on Wednesday, DIDH noted positively the civil vitality in view of the spontaneous reactions expressed by representatives of weight of national public opinion, following the publication at the end of July by this organization of its report entitled "Morocco’s Playbook to Crush Dissent".

"By doing so, this organization ignores the principles of professionalism, objectivity and impartiality, thus clearly showing itself to be an instrument in the hostile and systematic campaign against our country. On the other hand, the civil reactions of denunciation are edifying," notes the DIDH.

The Delegation cites, in support, a statement by the President of the National Press Council (CNP), Younes Moujahid, who notes that "anyone who reads this report will come to the conclusion that its authors sought by any means to compromise Morocco," before noting that "most of the authors of this kind of report reside abroad, using their political positions to produce reports on human rights.

Moujahid, still quoted by the statement, also noted that "these organizations that have their sponsors seek to achieve geostrategic objectives and it is, therefore, not to treat the subject with credulity.

In its press release, the DIDH also cites the reaction of the Moroccan Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FMEJ), which notes that "the report is mired in a one-sided vision and has not reported any reaction or interaction, either from official parties or from national professional bodies, which makes it, in fine, a document with a one-sided assessment with a hackneyed content and obsolete facts, arbitrarily compiled without any realistic and objective methodical link."

The Federation also deplored the fact that "the authors of the report have even shown insolence in defaming and slandering Moroccan media."

The statement also refers to the reaction of the National Union of Moroccan Press (SNPM) which pointed to "this precedent in the annals of international reports" that represents the obvious animosity that the report displays towards some national media in terms that violate the dignity'', stressing that "the position of Moroccan press professionals has been clear, frank and categorical."

The press release also cites the reaction of the Moroccan Association for Victims' Rights (AMDV) which protests against the bias of this organization which "defends rapists by multiplying contacts with their families, their lawyers and the association that supports them while marginalizing, on the other hand, the victims and even bothering to listen to them and their lawyers by considering them as being instrumentalized by the State, which represents a serious attack on their dignity and further aggravates their psychological, social and economic suffering."

The DIDH recalls that it had noted, in an open response published on January 24, 2022, that "instead of revealing truths and verifying them before presenting them in an objective manner, the Human Rights Watch organization has given in to the easy way by engaging in a hostile political campaign against our country."

"Today, it is clearer than ever that this report by the aforementioned organization reveals the falsity of a thesis supported under the veil of the defense of human rights that collapses on three levels, namely the discourse, the relationship with justice and the disregard for the victims."

The DIDH also points out that "the thesis of HRW" falls on a second level in its report on Moroccan justice, because this organization uses hateful and rancorous expressions in its evocation of justice and verdicts, while trying to improve its image by saying that it has attended trials and consulted hundreds of pages on trials as well as hundreds of press articles, including official statements by the Moroccan public prosecutor's office and other officials.

Thus, this organization is trying to convince its flock that it has followed trials about which it has never made a single remark according to internationally agreed standards. It would therefore have been quite normal to follow this logic, but the truth is that it has never bothered to publish reports on each of the cases mentioned in its report.

It should also be noted that there is a difference between monitoring the course of a fair trial and the opinion of one or two people who stand around in the hall of silence or who only listen to the version of one party. And so, this organization has deliberately chosen to question the credibility of the Moroccan criminal justice system by attacking it politically, an easy and quick shortcut.

On the third level, the contempt of the victims, the DIDH deplores "the hostile attitude of the organization towards the victims of sexual assaults which is not based on any norm or rule on the register of human rights," indicating that the Moroccan Association of Victims' Rights has vehemently protested against its exclusion by this organization by refusing to listen to the victims and their defense.

After all this, what human rights mission is left to Human Rights Watch, what professionalism and what defense against violations can it still claim to provide by misleading people?

It concluded that "in the face of HRW's flagrant bias, which is nothing more than an instrument in a political campaign against our country, we can only affirm that the mask of human rights has fallen on this organization."

MAP 03 August 2022