News
Tuesday 6 August 2019

Equity and Reconciliation Committee: New Arbitration Decisions Handed to 624 Beneficiaries

Vocal synthesis
Equity and Reconciliation Committee: New Arbitration Decisions Handed to 624 Beneficiaries

New arbitration decisions by the monitoring committee in charge of the implementation of recommendations issued by the Equity and Reconciliation Committee (IER) were handed, on Tuesday in Rabat, for the benefit of 624 beneficiaries, during a meeting organized by the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH).

Beneficiaries of these new arbitration decisions are divided into several groups of victims or their dependents, who will be compensated for the serious human rights abuse committed against them between 1956 and 1999. Such cases have been processed pursuant to the standards and criteria laid down in the IER final report.

They are 39 beneficiaries with incomplete files and who submitted the missing documents, 80 civilian victims abducted by the Polisario, 28 dependents of victims, whose fate was unknown, and who submitted the required documents to finalize their files, 367 people belonging to the group of students of Ahermommou who submitted their files to the IER. In addition, there are 110 victims or dependents who have benefited from social integration.

President of the National Council of Human Rights (CNDH) Amina Bouayach said, on this occasion, that the new arbitration decisions are part of the implementation of recommendations by the Equity and Reconciliation Committee. She said that the CNDH has adopted the theory of risk that says that the state is responsible for the protection of its citizens even if it is not responsible for possible harmful acts.

The arbitration decisions are part of the closure of the issue of serious violations and of the implementation of the IER recommendations relating to the compensation of victims or their deceased dependents.

In January 2006, HM King Mohammed VI tasked the Advisory Council on Human Rights, currently the CNDH, to monitor the implementation of the IER's recommendations, including those relating to reparations, financial compensation, social integration, administrative and financial regularization and medical coverage of victims or their dependents.

In this context, the CNDH expressed in a statement its most sincere apologies to the victims and their dependents for the delay (since 2012) in the implementation of the aforementioned recommendations, affirming that it undertakes to continue the actions to turn the page of serious human rights abuse and that it will hand the first arbitration decisions for the benefit of 624 beneficiaries of pending cases, which required the mobilization of funds estimated at nearly 87 million dirhams.

In line with the IER recommendation on social integration, the monitoring committee will continue its work to finalize its technical and administrative procedures relating to the supplementary pension of a certain number of victims integrated in the civil service or in public institutions, as well as the examination of remaining or pending files.

MAP 06 August 2019