Six Moroccan soldiers serving as U.N. peacekeepers in Congo have been arrested for sexually abusing young girls, the government said on Sunday. It also said the head of the Moroccan military contingent in Congo and his deputy have been relieved of their duties. Over the past year the United Nations has probed 150 allegations against some 50 soldiers of various nationalities of sexual exploitation of women and girls, including of being involved in gang rapes.
* Read Kofi Annan's letter to the Security Council detailing new measures for peacekeepers in the DRC
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/pkwatch/discipline/SGletterMONUC05.pdf

Morocco has urged Algeria to allow the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) "fulfil duly its mandate in (Tindouf) camps," and voiced "support" to carry on the visit exchange program between families in the camps and their families in southern Morocco. Families in Tindouf (southern Algeria) and their relatives in southern Morocco have been separated for almost three decades because of the conflict between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario separatists that are claiming the secession of Morocco's southern provinces known as the Sahara.

The National Council of Moroccans in France (CNMF) has urged French authorities to "act immediately" to put an end to racist acts targeting the Maghreban community in Corsica, notably Moroccans. This call was made after a man of Moroccan origin was shot dead September 17th by two individuals, and the car belonging to a Moroccan national was blown up in Bastia. The two incidents occurred following a series of attacks against the interests of the Moroccan and Maghreban community in the French Island.

The Global Rights Morocco field office, in collaboration with 31 local women's rights groups and development associations, has published the second revised version of its manual, "Making Human Rights Real: A Human Rights Education Program for Women in Morocco." Written in Arabic and 420 pages in length, the new version of the Manual is the result of a four year grassroots level campaign by Global Rights and local Moroccan organizations to promote human rights and to enhance legal awareness among illiterate women in Morocco.

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) has welcomed the release from prison of Anas Guennoun, director of the weekly newspaper "Al Ahali". According to reports, Guennoun was released during the first week of August 2004. On 2 April, Guennoun had received a 10-month prison sentence for defamation. The sentence appeared to stem from an article written by the journalist that allegedly defamed a politician.

A new family code in Morocco, known as the Mudawana, is having differing effects on women's rights in the Islamic kingdom and the disputed territory of Western Sahara, which falls under Moroccan rule. Earlier this year, Moroccan King Mohammed VI pushed the Mudawana through parliament. As of February 2004, Moroccan women no longer have to obey their husbands by law, something many Moroccan men saw as enshrining their right to use their fists on disobedient wives.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) says it is extremely concerned over the abrupt imprisonment of Anas Tadili, editor of the weekly "Akhbar al-Ousbouaâ", on 15 April 2004. While officially arrested over a legal matter dating back 10 years, RSF fears Tadili may have been detained for an article published in his newspaper, and that the arrest was in fact the result of political pressure. On 9 April, Tadili's paper published an article entitled "Homosexuality and the political class in Morocco", detailing the homosexual adventures of a government minister at a resort in northern Morocco.

According to Amnesty International and other credible human rights monitoring groups, the human rights situation in Western Sahara remains among the worst in the world. Any demonstration of support for independence is brutally suppressed. Even displays by the Sahrawis' of their distinct cultural identity is actively discouraged, says Stephen Zunes, an associate professor of Politics and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. Zunes was speaking about the crisis in Western Sahara to Jacob Mundy, a co- founder of Friends of the Western Sahara (www. friendsofthewesternsahara.org) in this interview reproduced on the pages of www.zmag.org.

Hadija begs for money in the bustling alleys of the ancient walled city of Rabat, Morocco's capital. "My husband repudiated me when I was three months pregnant," she says. Under Morocco's old family code Khadija's husband and thousands of other Moroccan men could verbally divorce their wives at any time, and their decision was legally binding. Khadija was thrown out of her family home.

Thousands of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa are braving cold and wet nights in Moroccan forests in the hope of getting to Europe. The forests near Rahrah are only about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Spain and when the weather is clear, the European mainland can easily be seen from the top of a hill. But trips across the rough Mediterranean sea aboard inflatable boats are very risky. Some 4,000 migrants have drowned in the past five years trying to get into Spain.

Editor Ali Lmrabet ended his 47-day hunger strike on 23 June. Ali Lmrabet, editor of the newspapers Demain Magazine and Douman, was found guilty of "insulting the person of the king" and of committing an "offence against the monarchy" and "an offence against territorial integrity" on 12 May 2003 and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. The sentence was reduced to three years' imprisonment on appeal on 17 June 2003.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has voiced its mounting concern over the worsening condition of jailed newspaper editor Ali Lmrabet, the organisation's correspondent in Morocco, who was rushed from his prison cell to hospital on 26 May 2003. Lmrabet has been on hunger strike since 6 May and is now refusing even water. His lawyers yesterday described his state of health as "worrying." Lmrabet began serving a four-year prison sentence for "insulting the king" on 21 May.

The Moroccan government has proposed to parliament an amendment to the electoral code whereby 10 percent of parliamentary seats at the national level would be reserved for women candidates. Currently only 0.5 percent of the members of parliament are women. In another move to promote gender equality, the six parties of the ruling coalition committed to a 20 percent quota of female candidates to run for the September 2002 parliamentary elections. Over the past two years, UNIFEM has supported the coalition of women's groups who have lobbied for these changes.

The United Nations Security Council will Tuesday vote on a new United States sponsored autonomy plan for the Western Sahara. The proposal is seen by observers in the Moroccan capital city of Rabat as a ''victory'' for Morocco, while the Polisario Front - who are fighting for the independence of the Sahara - believe it will plunge the North African region back into war.

The United Nations on Tuesday proposed a partition of Western Sahara as one of four possible solutions to a 25-year dispute over whether the contested territory should be free or a part of Morocco. While neither side was now willing to discuss dividing up the phosphate-rich territory, which also may have offshore oil deposits, U.N. special envoy and former Secretary of State James Baker said the Security Council could choose to present a partition plan to both sides on a nonnegotiable basis.

Earlier this month, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies organised a Senior Leader Seminar which brought together military and civilian leaders from all over Africa to discuss issues related to security. Nouzha Skalli Bennis, member of the PPS, Morocco's former communist party, and municipal counsellor from Casablanca, represented the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women at the conference. She spoke with allAfrica.com about her work.

The first ever Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators has opened, seeking ways to improve the safety of food worldwide at every step of the food production chain — from farmers, through processors and retailers, to consumers.

A broad range of Australian trade unions, church groups, student organisations and human rights bodies have signed a statement condemning ongoing human rights violations perpetrated by Morocco in the occupied territory of Western Sahara.

Climate talks have resumed to finalize the procedures and institutions that will make the Kyoto Protocol fully operational. The world’s governments are meeting here from today through November 9 to work out exactly how to reduce the emissions of six greenhouse gases that are linked to global warming.

The government of Morocco has seized the 6 September 2001 issue of the Spanish newspaper "El Mundo," after the daily printed statements by the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Josep Pique insinuating that the Moroccan police had ties to the (immigration) mafia, according to Reporters sans frontières (RSF). Sources told RSF that all 200 copies of the issue were confiscated at the Casablanca Airport. "Every time a foreign newspaper writes an article that displeases the Moroccan government, it gets banned," comments RSF.