Brussels, 12/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 10 December, the European Commission adopted a support programme to help human rights organisations in Morocco. Aid of €2.8 million will be granted. It will be taken from budget resources allocated to the SPRING programme (support for the “Arab Spring”) and will go towards supporting “two key institutions”: the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH) and the Inter-Ministerial Human Rights Delegation (DIDH). This support for two quasi-institutional organisations underpins the approach towards supporting the “dynamic” triggered in the country and sparing it the upheavals that have characterised other countries in the region.
The Commission has positively noted the “efforts undertaken” in the country to meet the democratic demands of the mass movement of 20 February, through its adoption in 2011 of a new constitution and the holding of elections that saw the emergence of an Islamist government. The Commission was pleased to point out that this new constitution helped officialise and develop the prerogatives of certain institutions active in the field of human rights protection and promotion.
According to Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle, this aid demonstrates the importance the Commission accords human rights and the unreserved support given to the two human rights organisations benefiting from this aid. He explained that the CNDH and DIDH are urged to play a leading role in the protection and promotion of human rights in years to come, and that the progress that will result from this will significantly move Morocco closer to the essential values defended by the EU. (FB/transl.fl)