The Government of Morocco is planning to deploy a new e-government system to streamline public procurement processes, increase competitive bidding and save money for Moroccan taxpayers, with support of the Development Gateway's e-Government Grants Program. Technical assistance and seed funding for the project will come from the Grants Program, a partnership with the Government of Italy.

The Moroccan Ministerial Commission, chaired by Premier Driss Jettou, approved the lifting of some reservations to international conventions Morocco ratified to uphold the principles of a modern and democratic society, human rights and gender equality, said a Justice Ministry communiqué. The lifting of the reservations comes as part of the country's move to revise the citizenship code to allow women to hand down their nationality to children born to foreign fathers.

On 29 December 2005, publication director Ahmed Benchemsi and news editor Karim Boukhari, of the weekly "TelQuel", were sentenced on appeal, to a two-month suspended prison term and ordered to pay a fine of 800,000 dirhams (72,000 euros). In January, the two journalists, convicted of defamation in another case, are set to reappear before the Casablanca Court of Appeal. "Contrary to our expectations, the sentence is markedly disproportionate in its opposition to Ahmed Benchemsi and Karim Boukhari, in a trial that did not fully review the case. We hope nevertheless that in the least, the court of appeal will be less severe to 'TelQuel' during the second court process that will take place in January 2006," declared Reporters Without Borders.

Illegal immigrants seeking to start a new life in Europe will now find it impossible to jump the border after the Moroccan and Spanish armies erected a barbed wire between their common frontier, reports Inter Press Services (IPS).

King Mohammed VI today (December 16) approved the publication and public release of the final report of the Moroccan Equity and Reconciliation Commission (Instance Équité et Réconciliation or IER). The Royal Palace received the report on December 1, 2005, officially ending the Commission's 18-month mandate.

On 9 December, HREA announced in Rabat the conclusion of its study on gender bias in schoolbooks in Morocco. The study was part of a year-long programme to review textbooks in Morocco for human rights and gender equality. Fifty primary school textbooks were reviewed. Says HREA project coordinator Mustapha Kak: "The list of suggested books covered most subject matters, especially those subjects thought to contain concepts and principles related to human rights and gender equality", explains Mustapha. Textbooks for Arabic, Art, French, Family Education, Geography and National Education, History, and Islamic Education were analysed. The study was conducted in cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Education.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the censorship of many websites supporting the Polisario Front’s struggle for Sahrawi independence, such as Arso.org, which have been made inaccessible within Morocco. Calling on the Moroccan authorities to stop blocking access to sites dealing with Western Sahara, the organisation said : “It should not be possible to take a decision to filter a website without a fair trial taking place first. Banning an online publication simply on the basis of an administrative decision is a serious violation of free expression.”

The purpose of this paper from the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research is to explain the different trajectories followed by Egypt and Morocco with regards to feminization of the labor force. While both have experienced significant informalization of their labor markets, Morocco has undergone noteworthy feminization of its work force, while Egypt (excepting the civil service) has largely de-feminized.

Amnesty International announced (November 28) today that it is sending a delegate to observe the trial this week of seven human rights defenders from Western Sahara who the organization believes may be prisoners of conscience. They are standing trial together with seven other accused who are being prosecuted for participating in demonstrations against Moroccan rule.

At the end of this month, the Moroccan Equity and Reconciliation Commission (Instance Équité et Réconciliation or IER) will be handing its final report to King Mohammed VI and formally ending its mandate. The Commission's final report and the processes it recommends provide Morocco with a tremendous opportunity to advance victims' rights, prevent future abuses, and strengthen the rule of law. In its 33-page report, "Transitional Justice in Morocco: A Progress Report," the ICTJ traces the historical process, dating back to the early 1990's, that led to the formation of the IER in early 2004, and places its work within that larger context.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last month sent a three-member team to Morocco to interview dozens of sub-Saharan Africans with agency documentation reportedly being held in various parts of the country after having been picked up by the authorities in a crackdown on irregular migration. At the time, UNHCR called on the Rabat Government not to forcibly return them to a country where they might face persecution.

Reporters Without Borders has written to the Moroccon authorities to draw attention to the plight of Abderrahmane El Badraoui, the former editor of the weekly Al-Moulahid, who has been in prison in Morocco since January 2002. He was physically attacked on 26 October by a guard, Mustafa Dindla, who had taken to subjecting him to extortion. After complaining about the guard's behaviour to the prison's deputy governor, Mr. Badraoui was attacked by the guard and two inmates, who hit him with keys and then gave him a beating.

Amnesty International delegates have found numerous irregularities in the treatment of migrants, including possible asylum-seekers, during a 10-day mission to Spain and Morocco including the towns of Ceuta, Melilla, Oujda, Nador and Tangier. The delegates took testimonies from people fleeing poverty and repression mostly from central and west Africa who were trying to get into the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, either by sea or by climbing the barbed and razor wire protected fence around them.

Under the direct supervision of the UNIFEM Program Coordinator for North Africa, based in Rabat, Morocco and in close consultation with the Morocco Ministry of Finance and Privatisation, the Project Manager will manage the Morocco Component of the Global Gender Responsive Budgeting Programme, Phase II.

Voicing concern over the situation of migrants trying to cross from Morocco into Spain’s enclaves on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, a senior United Nations official in West Africa warned that what is happening there now with African youth is nothing compared with what might occur within a few years. Tens of millions of youths in West Africa lack proper employment, and their realization that their prospects are so limited in their home countries is driving ever more of them to undertake the desperate measures necessary to emigrate clandestinely to Europe or North America.

Over the second half of the 20th century, Morocco has evolved into one of the world's leading emigration countries. Moroccans form one of the largest and most dispersed non-Western migrant communities in Western Europe. Although Moroccan policymakers and the media stress the temporary, transitory character of sub-Saharan migration, an increasing proportion of these officially "temporary" migrants might become permanent settlers. These African migrants to Morocco face substantial xenophobia and social and economic marginalization. At the same time, their presence confronts Moroccan society with an entirely new set of social and legal issues typical for immigration countries, issues that do not yet resonate with Morocco's self-image as an emigration country.

A leading Islamist activist in Morocco says she is eagerly awaiting her trial on charges of insulting King Mohammed VI. Nadia Yassine, of the outlawed but widely-popular Justice and Charity Group, could face up to five years in jail if convicted. She was put on trial earlier this year for saying that she would prefer a republican system to Morocco's hereditary monarchy.

While satellite television often attracts the lion's share of analysis about new media and their effect on prospects for democratization in the Middle East and North Africa, another technology may already have had at least as large an impact: the Internet. In Morocco, where the regime has severely constrained, controlled or silenced independent print media through direct and indirect censorship, the Internet has become an important instrument for unrestricted flows of information, which in turn is leading to the emergence of a more vibrant public sphere.

"The World Press Freedom Committee last wrote on February 2, 2004 to express its warm appreciation of Your Majesty's compassion in pardoning journalist Ali Lmrabet, the director of the French-language Demain and its Arabic sister publication, Douman, after he had been sentenced to four years' imprisonment by a Moroccan court for news reports he had published. The WPFC now writes again to express its pleasure at reports that Your Majesty has instituted a far-ranging review of restrictive laws contained in Morocco's Penal Code to ensure that journalists not be jailed for what they write or publish."

With trials of Sahrawi demonstrators beginning this week in Laayoune, Amnesty International has called on the Moroccan government to ensure that all reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees held in connection with recent disturbances in Western Sahara are fully and impartially investigated and that all those charged are guaranteed fair trials. Amnesty International said it was greatly disturbed by reports of torture and excessive use of force by Moroccan security personnel when dispersing Sahrawi protestors during demonstrations in Laayoune and several other cities in Morocco and Western Sahara in late May and early June.