The power to grant a pardon can be a useful element in any country's legal system. It allows a measure of discretion in cases where the law is believed to have treated someone unfairly.
But debates about the principle stretch back centuries – certainly to the time of Plato – and in...
Blog archive: Morocco
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4th August 2014
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23rd July 2014International human rights law has often been characterised as a product of colonialism and cultural imperialism. In the words of Makau Mutua, a Kenya-born professor of law: “The west was able to impose its philosophy of human rights on the rest of the world because it dominated the United...
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12th June 2013This photo, posted on Twitter, is said to show King Mohammed with a young Moroccan immigrant in Paris In 2011, amid fears that the Arab Spring could spread to Morocco, King Mohammed VI announced a programme of reforms and ushered in a new constitution that...
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14th March 2012A 16-year-old Moroccan girl from Larache killed herself on Saturday by swallowing rat poison after being forced to marry a man who had raped her, al-Massae newspaper reports (in Arabic). The girl, referred to as "Amina F", was 15 at the time she was raped by a man more than 10 years...
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17th November 2011TUNISIA After some delay, the definitive results in Tunisia's hung election were announced earlier this week. There are some minor changes (the Ennahda party has 89 seats out of 217 – one less than originally reported). The Tunisia Live website has produced useful a graphic showing...
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3rd July 2011The new Moroccan constitution, endorsed by a referendum on Friday, has had a generally warm and uncritical reception from the US and the EU. A joint statement from the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and commissioner Stefan Fule described it as "a significant response to the...
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18th June 2011The clear message from the Arab Spring is that the region's leaders must initiate swift and far-reaching reforms or risk being overthrown. So far, though, the only country that seems to be heeding that message with anything close to the level of determination that the situation requires is Morocco...
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3rd April 2011With the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt gone, and continuing turmoil in Libya, the two North African regimes still largely undamaged by protests are those of Morocco and Algeria. Early in January, at the height of the Tunisian uprising, it looked as if Algeria might be heading in the same...
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21st March 2011Aside from Libya, which is getting wall-to-wall media coverage, here are some other noteworthy events from the weekend: SYRIA: In the southern city of Deraa, protesters clashed with security forces on Sunday, for the third day running. Numerous buildings associated with the regime were...
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10th March 2011Amid continuing popular discontent in the Arab countries, King Mohammed of Morocco promised constitutional reforms in a speech yesterday (full text here). Among other things, he talked of consolidating the rule of law, enhancing the independence of the judiciary and making the prime minister "...
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16th December 2010The problem of Arab governments
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5th December 2010Two attempted coups in Morocco during the 1970s (which came close to succeeding) continue to cast a long shadow over relations between the king and his military, according to a Wikileaks document. The document – a memo from the US embassy in Rabat dated August 2008 – says Mohammed VI has...
