Heba Press / Rabat
In its annual report on the human rights situation in Morocco for the year 2023, the National Human Rights Council confirmed that the Kingdom has witnessed this year the establishment of the foundations of a national system for the protection of economic and social rights.
The Council explained in its report entitled “Laying the foundations of a national system for the protection of economic and social rights” that these steps are manifested in the launch of direct social assistance to families, as the number of beneficiaries in the first phase of the aid paid reached about one million families and improved access to the right to housing through a set of measures aimed at improving the ability of citizens to access housing, in addition to the progress made in the field of reform of the value added tax. the law as an indicator of the strengthening of the social role of the national tax system, particularly through its role in strengthening the sources of financing of social protection homes.
He stressed that the decision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI to revise the Family Code constitutes one of the significant events affecting human rights in the Kingdom during the year 2023, noting that “the imbalances resulting from the application of its requirements over the past twenty years are a response to many challenges facing our country in the process of building comprehensive and inclusive human development for vulnerable groups and leaving no one behind.
In the field of education, the Council believes that addressing the major difficulties encountered by public schools requires thinking about educational issues using a synthetic approach that recalls the transformations of the socio-cultural environment of Moroccan schools, and the problem of school management. relationship between the long period of reform and the timetable for its implementation in sectoral public policies, and also takes into account the various obstacles to access to the right to quality education.
On the other hand, the Council called in its report to “adopt the option of spatial justice” as a guiding basis for national and local public action interventions, not only at the level of public policies, but also as an integral part of the process of strategic reorientation of the State’s public policy and its major choices in terms of development.
In this context, he indicated that five bills were approved to reform the national health system during the year 2023, recalling the progress made in the preparation of the institutional framework, which constitutes a major step in the completion of the new health system and the promotion of the right to health for male and female citizens.
On another level, the report highlights that the activation of the Social Protection Program (2021-2025) has reached the second stage of generalization of family compensation, which will extend to the years 2023 and 2024, after the generalization of basic compulsory health insurance (2021 and 2022), provided that it reaches in its last year the stage of expansion of participation in pension systems and universalization of the benefit of compensation for loss of employment (2025).
In terms of social housing assistance, the report notes that the government has approved Decree No. 2.23.350 specifying the forms of State aid for housing assistance and the terms of granting to owners of housing intended for primary housing, which aims to renew social housing assistance. approach linked to assistance with access to property ownership and support for the purchasing power of families through… Direct financial assistance to the purchaser.
On the other hand, the Council confirmed that the emergency response following the earthquake of 8 September 2023 was characterised by the speed and effectiveness of the measures taken, in particular through the creation of a solidarity contribution fund open to all, to manage the consequences of the earthquake, in addition to granting children orphaned by the earthquake the status of “sponsored by the nation”, which allows them to obtain the necessary care, guarantees their access to fundamental rights and facilitates their integration into society.
