MOROCCO, March 1 - A side meeting held Tuesday in Geneva, on the sidelines of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), discusses the activation of the Marrakech Declaration on establishing a network of national mechanisms for the implementation, preparation and monitoring of reports in human rights field.

The meeting, held at the joint initiative of the Permanent Missions of Morocco, Portugal and Paraguay to the United Nations, confirmed the Kingdom's leadership in mobilizing international multilateral action to strengthen national human rights mechanisms, in terms of implementing commitments and preparation and monitoring of reports.

The meeting, moderated by Ambassador, Morocco’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, Omar Zniber, was attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, João Gomes Cravinho, and Paraguay, Julio César Arriola, as well as the Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, who chairs the Moroccan delegation to the 52nd HRC session.

On this occasion, the ministers stressed the importance of achievements of the International Seminar on the implementation, drafting and monitoring of reports in human rights field, which took place in December in Marrakech, which brought together senior officials from nearly 30 countries, international experts interested in human rights issues, as well as representatives of these national mechanisms and national human rights institutions.

They also called for enhancing the results of the meeting, as expressed in the Marrakech Declaration, by continuing to work for institutionalizing cooperation between national mechanisms, through a network ensuring the exchange of experiences and expertise and the creation of a sustainable area for partnership.

Portugual's top diplomat highlighted the process that led to developing the national human rights mechanism in his country since its creation in 2010, as well as its role in terms of raising human rights awareness in a cross-cutting manner that integrates various departments.

For his part, the Paraguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs announced that his country will host a conference at the end of this year, which is a continuation of the Marrakech seminar.

The meeting allowed the national mechanisms of Morocco, Portugal and Paraguay to continue the reflection and exchange on ways to activate the Marrakech Declaration and encourage the accession of countries to the creation of this network.

On this subject, Ouahbi affirmed the Kingdom’s involvement in various efforts to activate the Marrakech Declaration and the rest of the initiatives related to it, in order to achieve this common international aspiration, which requires "a strong commitment, continuous mobilization and broad involvement in the various tracks and stages related to it."

This will allow, in fine, to create, develop and modernize the national mechanisms, and will contribute to strengthening their interaction with the United Nations human rights system, he said.

MAP: 28 February 2023