Truth Commission Morocco
The Moroccan Truth Commission ( French L'Instance équité et réconciliation , IER; Arabic هيئة الإنصاف والمصالحة, DMG haiʾat al-inṣāf wa-l-muṣālaḥa 'Association of Justice and Reconciliation') was established by the Moroccan King Mohammed VI. Deployed on January 2, 2004 with the aim of investigating human rights violations between 1956 and 1999, most of which were committed under the reign of his father Hassan II . The commission's mandate was to provide compensation and reparation for the victims and to draw up reform proposals. It is the only truth commission in the Arab world so far .
prehistory
In the 1970s and 1980s in particular, there were serious human rights violations in Morocco , which were directed against all kinds of opposition members. This period is sometimes referred to as the dirty war . The victims of state repression were members of the military after the coup attempts in 1971 and 1972, members of left parties and movements and activists for self-determination in the Sahara .
The history of the human rights movement in Morocco is linked to the political opposition to the royal family . In 1979 the Association marocaine des droits humains (AMDH) was founded as the first Moroccan human rights organization, which is affiliated with the left Union Nationale des Forces Populaires (USFP) . It was not until 1988 that the Marocaine des Droits Humains (OMDH) organization was founded, a non-party human rights organization.
A human rights minister was appointed in 1993 and Amnesty International's activities were approved in 1994 . The Truth Commission, which was finally founded in 2004, recognized the right to redress or financial compensation from over 16,000 cases submitted to around 10,000 people .
Political impact
After the death of Hassan II and the accession to power of Mohammed VI. an attempt has been made to create a new social consensus. In an address to the Moroccan people, Mohammed VI spoke. of the need to set up "a Commission of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation" to reconcile the country with its painful past.
The former left opposition and the royal family are pursuing common interests, particularly when it comes to rapprochement with the European Union and the fight against Islamism . This new consensus explains why a truth commission could come about without a regime change and without legal prosecution of the perpetrators.
This process has been accompanied by active remembrance, commemorative trips and a large cultural production of former victims since the 1990s. In the process of the Truth Commission, this remembering from “below” came into conflict with the state's work of memory. Negotiating the memories of former victims and an official narrative of the monarchy was a political learning process.
Criticism and evaluation
The Truth Commission has been criticized for failing to prosecute offenders. Her focus was solely on establishing the guilt of institutions. In addition, serious human rights crimes were defined very narrowly as " disappearances " and the investigation was limited to the period from 1956 to 1999 and thus fell outside the IER's mandate. Current human rights crimes, such as press censorship and torture of Islamists after the attacks in 2003 , were not part of the tasks of the Truth Commission.
It therefore remains questionable whether the Commission is only making a contribution to the restoration of state power or whether the Commission can make sustainable progress towards improving the human rights situation. The Moroccan political scientist Mohammed Tozy emphasizes the importance of the process of building trust between the actors of the state and civil society. What is remarkable is the almost complete absence of a scholarly analysis of this period by historians.
In conclusion, the Truth Commission can be seen as an engine for renewing Morocco's political culture. The plural social processing is unique for the Arab world. However, it is questionable whether different versions are really negotiated democratically in this process, or whether authoritarian pluralism only strengthens the position of the monarchy.
See also
literature
- Bettina Dennerlein , Sonja Hegasy : The Moroccan Truth Commission between Politics and History . In: Christoph Marx (Ed.): Pictures after the storm. Truth commissions and historical identity creation between the state and civil society . Lit Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-8258-0767-2 .
- Bettina Dennerlein (2004): Between politics and self-reflection. The “Instance Equité et Réconciliation” reconciliation commission . In: Inamo # 44: Morocco - Change of Power .
- Yassin Adnan (2005): Coming to terms with the past in Morocco. Hearings of victims of the "leaden years" . Qantara.de
- Beate Stauffer (2005): Knowledge liberates . In: amnesty journal.
- Alfred Hackensberger (2006): Dependent on the memory of the victims . Telepolis
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eric Goldstein: Morocco's Dirty War. In: The Nation, January 3, 2002