The Moroccan Human Rights Council (CNDH) called on the authorities to vote in favor of a resolution on the universal moratorium on the application of the death penalty at the next session of the UN Third Committee, scheduled for December.
In an appeal to the Moroccan authorities to back the UN resolution on a moratorium on the use of death penalty, the CNDH stressed that the vote “will constitute the implementation of Article 20 of the constitution which stipulates that the law protects the right to life as the primary right of every human being”.
The council said the vote presents an opportunity to advance public debate and awareness of the human dimension of the legal abolition of the death penalty.
While highlighting the achievements Morocco registered on the issue, CNDH recalled that it recommended the abolition of the death penalty in its memorandum published in October 2019 on the revision of the penal code.
“The abolition of death penalty is more than a prerequisite for the rule of law, it is a necessity in any just and free society where the dignity of citizens is not only respected but protected,” it said.
It described the death penalty as “one of the most serious violations of the right to life, this original, supreme and absolute right without which no right, no freedom, no justice can exist.”
Since the early 1990s, more than a quarter of a century ago, the kingdom has suspended the application of the death penalty, the council said, noting the growing, strong and broad mobilization in favor of the abolition of capital punishment in the country.
According to the council, this mobilization is particularly marked by the activities of the Moroccan Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, which is backed by networks of lawyers, parliamentarians, journalists, education personnel and civil society activists.
The resolution on a universal moratorium on the use of the death penalty will be on the agenda of the next session of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, in charge of social, humanitarian and cultural issues.
HA/lb/as/APA