Realizing the Rights of the Child
Situation of the rights
of the child in Morocco
Nadia Sebti
Translated by Salomé Hangartner
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with Ara­
bic as its official language and Islam as its re­
ligion. The population of Morocco according to
the latest general census, carried out in 2004, is
estimated at 29.9 million inhabitants, 11.7 mil­
lion of whom are younger than 18 years of age.
This latter figure by itself is proof of the stra­
tegic importance given to the matter of child­
hood and to giving concrete expression to these
rights. But only since the decade of the nine­
ties, thanks to the new political will to initi­
ate a democratic transition, bearing in mind
the respect of Human Rights and instituting a
state governed by the rule of law, did the mat­
ter of the rights of the child begin to take scope
within the legal approach. Ratification of sev­
eral international conventions concerning Hu­
man Rights in 1993, specifically of the Conven­
tion on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the
Convention on all types of discrimination con­
cerning women (CEDAW), as well as the Mo­
roccan State’s compliance with the deadlines
for presenting the reports on the state of im­
plementation of the ratified Conventions to
the sundry Human Rights Committees of the
196
­ nited Nations, did genuine progress in this
U
matter come about. At the institutional level,
we thus see the creation of the National Obser­
vatory of the Rights of the Child (Observatoire
National des Droits de l’Enfant ONDE), com­
missioned to supervise the application of the
Convention regarding the rights of the child in
1994. This structure, although having the stat­
ute of an association from the juridical point
of view, enjoys substantial means and a cer­
tain power since it is chaired by a princess and
was set up by the late King Hassan II in person.
ONDE has done important work in the area of
harmonizing national legislation with the Con­
vention on the Rights of the Child, and it has
also developed the child’s right to participate
through the institution of the children’s parlia­
ment. At the state level, several structures ded­
icated to human rights have been created and
they allow having the promotion and protec­
tion of the child’s rights to be included in gov­
ernment policy. At the level of ministerial de­
partments, these are specifically the Ministry
of Human Rights (created in 1993 and abolished
during the latest ministerial reorganization in
Situation of the Rights of the Child in Morocco
2004), the State Secretariat in charge of social
protection, the family, and youth, created in
1998 and renamed in 2004 to State Secretariat
in charge of the family, youth, and incapacitat­
ed persons. To this we have to add everything
we find within each ministerial department and
which might concern childhood matters, name­
ly an office or specialized service in this area.
We also have to mention the advisory council
for Human Rights, a national institution creat­
ed in 1990, with the objective of assisting the
King in matters of Human Rights and, since its
reorganization in 2001, with 14 of its 45 mem­
bers representing NGOs, among them NGOs of
Human Rights and Childhood.
The opening of the politico-social field, in
turn, facilitates the development of an emerg­
ing civil society whose role is undeniably as
much at the level of advocating as at the level
of direct actions to protect the child’s rights.
On the legal plane, this dynamic will be­
come evident by a genuine reform of legislative
dispositions with regard to the child in view of
a harmonization regarding the international
commitments of Morocco concerning this ­topic.
The significance of this reform is all the more
important because it will touch upon texts of
which a non negligible part is based on Moslem
right and which, due to that, is extremely sen­
sitive to modification. Specifically, this refers to
family law, revised in 1993 and 2004, to the law
on Kafala (type of adoption allowed by Mos­
lem law) in 2002, to the law on marital status in
2002, to the criminal code and the code of crim­
inal procedure in 2003, the labor law of 2004,
and the law on citizenship in 2007.
All these elements move us to evaluate the
impact of these dynamics and these reforms
at the level of putting into practice the funda­
mental rights of the child in Morocco, which we
197
shall regroup for the present paper under the
headings of the child’s right to survival, the right
to protection, and the right to blossoming.
The child’s right to survive in Morocco
This right is expressed at the level of the right to
health and the right of access to health ser­vices
for mother and child in Morocco. In this con­
text, we have to underline the fact that impor­
tant progress has been achieved in the course
of the past twenty years.
Main progress achieved at the level of
maternal health
According to various surveys carried out by the
Ministry of Health between 1980 and 2004, we
note a substantial decline of Moroccan wom­
en’s fertility and an increased use of contracep­
tion. The overall fertility index, which was 5.9
children per woman at the beginning of the
eighties, declined by 32% at the beginning of
the nineties and by 58% at the beginning of the
new millennium, reaching 4 and 2.5 children per
woman, respectively. Contraceptive prevalence
passed from 19% in 1980 to 42% in 1992, and to
63% in 2004. The increased age at marriage and
the programs of family planning developed by
the Ministry of Health since the seventies have
much to do with this drop in fertility. In paral­
lel, and in accordance with the latest data of the
population census and the family health sur­
vey, carried out in 2003–2004, there is a distinct
improvement in prenatal care and obstetrics. In
almost two thirds of all births, the mother has
consulted a health professional at least once
during her pregnancy and has been assisted by
specialized staff while giving birth, compared to
only half of the births in 1997. This figure varies,
however, depending on the environment of res­
idence (85% in an urban environ­ment against
Realizing the Rights of the Child
48% in rural areas), and on the edu­cational lev­
el (94% of women with a secondary education
or more give birth in a supervised environment
compared to 49% of women without a formal
education).
Main progress achieved at the level of the
child’s health
One of the most important advances record­
ed in the area of children’s health is, without
doubt, the expansion of vaccination coverage
thanks to the Ministry of Health’s implemen­
tation of an extended program of inoculations
(PEV) which has been the subject of a large scale
mobilization at the national level and which has
been funded completely by the State budget.
Due to this, close to 9 children out of 10, or 89%
of children between 12 and 13 months old, have
been completely vaccinated and only 1.4% of
children have not received any of the foreseen
vaccinations. The national program of immuni­
zation has allowed to significantly reduce sev­
eral causes of infant mortality, such as neona­
tal tetanus, tuberculosis, measles, diphtheria,
whooping cough, and polio. Not a single case of
polio has been recorded since 1987, and no case
of diphtheria has been reported since 1995.1
At the nutrition level, thanks to the ac­
tivities undertaken with regard to ­monitoring
children’s growth and the struggle against mal­
nutrition, it was found that the growth retarda­
tion (chronic malnutrition symptom) has been
reduced among children of five years or young­
er from 28% to 18%, and the prevalence of un­
derweight dropped from 20% in 1987 to 10%
in 2004.
Furthermore, subsequent to the analysis of
the second Moroccan periodic report on the
application of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child in 2003, and in conformity with the
198
recommendations of the Committee on the
Rights of the Child (CRC/C/15/Add. 211 of the
10/07/2003, items 46 and 47), increased atten­
tion has been given to the matter of the health
of adolescents from 2004 onward, since their
specific needs had been little known and there­
fore not been considered, even though they rep­
resent 20% of the population. From 2004 on­
ward, the Ministry of Health therefore began
to create Youth Health Areas which offer clini­
cal services, where young people can be heard,
oriented, and obtain information suitable for
and adapted to the specific needs of adolescents
with regard to health and reproductive health.
In parallel, important activities of information
and awareness-raising take place within schools,
through the creation of health clubs managed
by students who have been trained for this task,
and also within the frame of reference of youth
centers and women’s homes that are dependent
on the State Secretariat in charge of youth.
We may also underline the progress made
in the past ten years in the efforts to provide
general access to healthy drinking water in ru­
ral areas, bearing in mind the direct impact on
children’s health of access to healthy drinking
water. Thus, the program of clustered drinking
water supply to rural populations (PAGER) al­
lowed to regulate the access to drinking water
for 61% of the rural population of this country.2
A very clear improvement of the bacteriologi­
cal and physico-chemical quality of the supplied
water has also been recorded thanks to the fol­
low-up of the water quality of 75% of the vil­
lages supplied by the Ministry of Health. These
measures have had several positive effects on
the beneficiaries, specifically the reduction, or
even elimination, of certain diseases related to
water (cholera), improved hygiene of the en­
vironment and personal grooming, improved
Situation of the Rights of the Child in Morocco
school attendance of children (due to reduced
water-carrying duties, mainly for young girls),
and saved time allowing women to take up
other activities which produce revenue.3
Without minimizing the importance of the
progress achieved by the Moroccan state in the
implementation of children’s rights in health,
their state of health is still incomplete in view
of the persisting, major health problems which
Morocco tries to tackle by putting into practice
new programs.
Persisting problems
Among the major, persisting problems of pub­
lic health, there is in the first place the high
mortality ratios of mothers and young children
compared to other countries of similar devel­-
opment.
Actually, based on the latest data of the
Population and Family Health Survey (EPSF)
of 2003–2004, the maternal death rate is 227 of
every 100,000 births over a period of 9 years,
that is, between 1995 and 2003. This rate has
not changed if we compare it to the one given
by the National Survey of Maternal and Infant
Health (ENSME) in 1997 which gave an estimat­
ed rate of 228 per 100,000 births. In relation
to the dwelling environment, this rate is even
more serious in rural areas where it reaches 267
deaths for 100,000 births.
Concerning the death rate of young chil­
dren, in other words the risk of dying before the
age of 5 years, the rate is still high, in spite of
the fact that it has decreased by two thirds (2⁄3)
during the period 1979–2003. According to the
latest data of the 2003 survey, infant mortality
is still at 47 deaths per one thousand births. In
other words, in Morocco, about five children out
of 100 die before their fifth birthday. “Among
the deaths occurring before the age of five, 78%
199
occur before the age of three and 57% in the
course of the first month of life. The primary
causes of infant mortality and morbidity con­
tinue to be infectious diseases (50%) and peri­
natal ailments (37%).”4 Neonatal mortality is
the main obstacle to achieving a more substan­
tial reduction of infant mortality in Morocco.
To respond to this situation, the Ministry of
Health has adopted the strategy of taking inte­
gral charge of children’s illnesses (PCIME). This
new strategy, which has been implemented by
the WHO and UNICEF, integrates all children’s
health programs and aims at reducing the mor­
tality and morbidity which are due to the main
children’s diseases by improving the quality of
care for children, be it in case of illness or on the
occasion of follow-up.5 Unfortunately, spread­
ing this strategy at the national level is slowed
down by insufficient financial means.6
Furthermore, the rate of severe malnutri­
tion has increased substantially since 1987,
namely from 3% to 10% in 2004. The micronu­
trient deficiencies affect a large part of children
and pregnant women. Thus 32% of children be­
low the age of 5 years and 37.2% of pregnant
women suffer anemia due to iron deficiency,
41% of children below the age of 6 years suffer
vitamin A deficiency and 22% of children aged
6 to 12 years suffer of iodine deficiency. In this
context, a study was made by UNICEF and the
Ministry of Health to measure the economic
impact of iodine deficiency in Morocco, which is
estimated to cause a loss in income correspond­
ing to 1.48% of the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), or the equivalent of 3.7 billion dirhams.7
This estimate is based on the substantial socio-
economic consequences caused by the problems
due to iodine deficiencies, such as “the reduc­
tion of the physical and intellectual capacity and
loss of production, excessive and permanent
Realizing the Rights of the Child 200

care-taking of imbeciles and mentally and phys­ of global health costs). On the other hand, the
ically retarded persons by the families and the disparities and inequalities of access to medical
community, schooling losses, ­psychological and care have to be pointed out, both regarding the
socio-economic costs of infant ­mortality.”8 In environment of residence (urban and rural), as
view of this major problem of public health, an well as socio-economic strata (population of the
integral strategy of fighting micronutrient defi­ poorest and richest quintiles).
ciencies has been put into practice since 2000.
It includes education on nutrition, preventive
and curative supplements for children under 2
years of age and for pregnant and breast-feed­
ing women, enriching of general staple foods
such as flour with iron, milk and table oil with
vitamin A, and adding iodine to salt.
Besides, a clear reduction in the practice of
breast-feeding children has been noted based
on the data of several national surveys on pop­
ulation and health carried out by the Health
Ministry in 1992, 1997, and 2003. “The per­
centage of children who have been exclusively
breast-fed at 6 months of age is 31%, and more
than two infants of every three are given addi­
tional food before the recommended age.”9 This
situation has been the reason why the Minis­
try of Health has worked out a national strate­
gy for promoting breast-feeding and good prac­
tices in nutrition in 2004, with the objective
of assuring exclusive breast-feeding for infants
up to 6 months.
In parallel, it is officially10 acknowledged
that the improvement of mothers’ and infants’
health, indeed the development of the health
sector in a global manner, necessarily has to go
through a correction of the dysfunctions and
major inequities that hamper any progress. On
the one hand, this has to do with insufficient
resources being allocated to public health in the
budget. At present, they represent 5% of the
general government budget and generate a good
part of the direct payments by households at
the level of financing health expenditures (59%
Realizing the Rights of the Child
Committee on the Rights of the Child, Second peri­-
odic reports of States parties due in 2000:
India. 16/07/2003. CRC/C/93/Add.5.
Challenges and Successes in Addressing
Child Sex Tourism in Southeast Asia
Amihan V. Abueva
1   ECPAT Australia, Travel with Care, 2000.
2   ECPAT International and ECPAT ­Australia, ECPAT
Information Booklet, July 1996.
3   ECPAT International, Questions and
­Answers about CSEC, 3rd edition 2006.
4   O’Grady, The ECPAT Story, 1996.
5   ECPAT Global Monitoring Report, 2006.
6   Ker Munthit, Associated Press, 2004-03-29.
7   http://www.nytimes.com/ The New York Times,
James Brooke.
8   Beddoe, Christine, 2006.
9   Fry, Erika, “Closing the Loopholes,” S
­ unday
Bangkok Post, 24/9/2006.
10   Beddoe, Christine, “The End of the Line for
Child Exploitation,” 2006.
11   www.ecpat.net
12   www.thecode.org
13   ECPAT Global Monitoring Report: Thailand, 2006.
14   ECPAT AccorGB.PDF
15   Child Wise, 2006.
16   ECPAT International.
17   Beddoe, Christine, “The End of the Line for
Child Exploitation,” 2006.
18   Beddoe, Christine, “The End of the Line for
Child Exploitation,” 2006.
“Street Children” in Brazil
Karin Schmitt
1   UNFPA: World Population Report 2007, New York,
N.Y. 2007.
2   The World Bank: Inequality and ­Economic Devel­
opment in Brazil. A World Bank C ­ ountry Study,
Washington, D.C. 2004.
3   Brazil has achieved dramatic results in improving
living conditions: Infant mortality declined from
around 50 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 32
per 1,000 in 2004. Net enrollment in basic educa­
278
tion rose from 85% in 1990 to 97% in 2004. Bra-
zilians with access to an improved water source
rose from 83% of the population in 1990 to
89% in 2003. See World Bank: World Develop-
ment Indicators 2007, Washington, D.C. 2007.
4   See also UNICEF: The State of the World’s
Children 2007, New York, NY 2007.
5   World Bank: World Development ­Indicators 2007,
Washington, D.C. 2007.
6   UNICEF: The State of the World’s ­Children 2007,
New York, NY 2007.
7   http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/
8   For any further information consider
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Brazil-
Homicide-1980-02-5mar04.htm
9   See the Economist (US) dated July 31, 1993.
10   See also Lusk, Mark and Derek T. Mason: Field-
work with Rio’s Street Children. In: Rizzini, Irene
(Ed.): Children in Brazil Today – A Challenge
for the Third Millennium. Editora Universitaria
Santa Ursula, Rio de Janeiro, 1994.
Situation of the Rights of the Child
in Morocco
Nadia Sebti
1   Ministère de la Santé, Direction de la ­population,
Division de la SMI “Santé de l’enfant au Maroc,
situation et ­orienta­tion stratégique,” April 2005.
2   “Etude de diagnostic de l’Approvisionnement
en Eau Potable (AEP) du monde rural au Maroc –
ONEP/FAO September 2005”
3   Idem.
4   Plan d’Action National pour l’Enfance 2006–2015
“Maroc digne de ses enfants,” e­ dited by
the Secrétariat d’Etat chargé de la famille, de
l’enfance et des p­ ersonnes handicapées, l’Obser­-
vatoire National des Droits de l’Enfant and
UNICEF.
5   Ministère de la Santé, Direction de la Population,
“Santé de l’enfant au Maroc, situation et
orientation stratégique,” April 2005.
6   Ministère de la Santé, Direction de la Popu­lation,
“Politique de Santé de l’Enfant au Maroc:
Notes
analyse de situation,” October 2005, (p. 106).
7   10 dirhams are the approximate e ­ qui­valent of
EUR 7 and USD 8.
8   Page 5 of the study carried out by UNICEF and the
Ministry of Health: “The ­economic impact of
iodine deficiency in Morocco.”
9   Plan d’Action National pour l’Enfance 2006–2015:
“Maroc digne de ses enfants,” edited by the Se-
crétariat d’Etat chargé de la famille, de l’enfance
et des ­personnes handicapées, l’Observatoire
National des Droits de l’Enfant, and UNICEF.
10   Ministère de la Santé: “Politique de santé: ac-
quis, défis et objectifs-plan d’action 2005–2007.”
11   “Comprendre le travail des enfants au Maroc,”
joint ILO-UNICEF-BM survey, March 2003.
12   Etude sur les filles domestiques âgées de moins
de 18 ans dans la wilaya de Casablanca, Haut
commissariat au plan, Unicef and UNFPA, 2004.
13   Plan d’action du programme de pays,
CPAP 2007–2010, UNICEF, 2007.
14   Plan d’action national de l’enfance 2006–2015,
Royaume du Maroc, December 2005.
15   “Le Maroc Possible,” report on “50 years of human
development in Morocco and perspectives to
the year 2025.”
16   Idem, p. 100.
17   Idem.
18   “Charte Nationale pour l’Education et la
Formation,” Commission relative à l’éducation
et la formation 1999.
19   Action plan of the country program: “Programme
de coopération Maroc/UNICEF 2007.”
20   Cadre stratégique de développement du système
éducatif, Ministère de l’Education Nationale,
December 2004.
21   Idem.
22   Le Maroc Possible, report on “50 ans de dévelop-
pement humain au Maroc et perspectives pour
2025,” page 111.
23   Web site of the Secrétariat d’Etat Chargé de la
Jeunesse, http://www.secj.gov.ma.
24   Op. cit. Plan d’Action National pour
l’Enfance 2006–2015.
25   Enquête qualitative sur l’enfant, 2003 – rapport
279
provisoire March 2005 HC au plan, p. 21.
26   Op. cit. Plan d’Action National pour
l’Enfance 2006–2015.
27   Idem.
Un “Vide Juridique”? – Migrant Children:
The Rights and Wrongs
Jacqueline Bhabha
1   United Nations, “World Economic and Social
Survey 2004: International Migration,” Depart-
ment of Social and Economic Affairs, p. 25.
2   U.S. State Department, “Trafficking in Persons
Report,” June 3, 2005.
3   Available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/
menu3/b/o_c_ref.htm (visited 02.06.2007).
4   Available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/
menu3/b/o_p_ref.htm (visited 02.06.2007).
5   Thus, in 1924, the League of Nations (the precursor
to the United Nations) ­adopted the Declara-
tion of the Rights of the Child, two of five
articles of which dealt with rights relevant to
migrant children. As well, the 1946 ­Constitution
of the International ­Refugee Organization,
the precursor to the ­United Nations High Com­
missioner for Refugees (UNHCR), included a
group of orphans under 16 as one of four catego­-
ries of refugees in its definition.
6   Available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/
b/k2crc.htm (visited 02.06.2007).
7   1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
Preamble, 5th indent.
8   An exception arises where the head of household
is guilty of sexual or child abuse, and the depen­d­
ent relatives cannot leave the abusive rela­tion­-
ship for fear of deportation or other adverse
immigration consequences.
9   Applicants A86/2003 v. MIMIA, Federal Court of
Australia 2004.
10   Jacqueline Bhabha and Susan Schmidt, “Seeking
Asylum Alone: Unaccompanied and Sepa­rated
Children and Refugee Protection in the U.S.,”
Cambridge, MA 2007, p. 5.
11   Matthew Weaver, “Deportee separated from
breastfeeding son,” The Guardian, May 22, 2007,
Authors
Anne Rüffer, 1957, author, documentary filmer, and
publisher of rüffer & rub, lives
and works in Zurich.
Karin M. Schmitt, Head Foundation Strategy
and Special Programs of No-
vartis Foundation for Sustain-
able Development, is in charge
of the Foundation’s strategy,
communi­cations and the man-
agement
of health development programs
in Africa and South East Asia. Her past work in
the Foundation included building up community
organizations in Brazil to
approach the root causes of street childhood and
child destitution for more than ten years. She
was involved in the development of agricultural
extension services in Laos for about five years
and income generation programs in Bangladesh.
At present, Karin’s programs are concerned
with the development and dissemination of best
practices in the psycho­social care and support
of children affected by HIV-AIDS, poverty and
violence in ­Africa (a regional program covering
13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa) and com­
munity health programs in Sri Lanka. Karin’s
involvement in her programs is on multiple lev-
els, starting from organizational capacity
building, human resources development, strate-
gic orientation to organizational self-reliance
and the application of the latest state-of-the-art
knowledge and practices in the subjects ad-
dressed by her programs. Besides her extensive
contributions to the Foundation’s articles
of interest, Karin M. Schmitt has co-authored
many publications together with Klaus M.
Leisinger. See www.novartisfoundation.org.
299
Yves Schumacher is a communication consultant in
Zurich. As the deputy chairman
of the board of AIDS & Child,
he is responsible for public rela­
tions work of the foundation.
He traveled to Romania while
the Ceauşescu regime was still in
power and was in charge of sev-
eral humanitarian missions of the foundation
on site after the regime’s overthrow.
Nadia Sebti is currently program officer at the ­Centre
d’Etudes en Droits Humains
et Démocratie in Morocco. She
holds a Bachelor of Public Law
degree and did graduate study in
administrative sciences with
the faculty of juridical, econom-
ic, and social sciences of the
University Mohammed V in Rabat, Morocco; she
also obtained a post-graduate college diploma
in “Droits Fondamentaux” (Basic Rights) from
the University of Nantes and the Agence Uni­
versitaire de la Francophonie. She has been
work­ing in the area of human rights for the past
twelve years and has acquired professional expe-
rience as project manager in this field, both
with government as well as non-government
organizations. Among her latest work we may
mention her contribution to the report on
“L’analyse de la situation de l’enfant au Maroc:
2000–2005” (Analysis of the situation of
children in Morocco: 2000–2005) on behalf of
UNICEF which served as a basis for elaborating
the cooperation program between Morocco
and UNICEF 2007–2011.