Morocco has made significant progress in the area of democratisation and respect for human rights. However, prison rights remain a critical issue for the country with overcrowding and lack of adequate hygiene. Since March 2006, MSI has conducted the Moroccan Observatory of Prisons (OMP). The OMP is Morocco’s only non-government organization (NGO) dedicated solely to prisoners’ rights; and leads efforts to promote human rights within the country’s prisons. Working with the penitentiary system, the MSI program seeks to build the OMP’s capacity to process and monitor prisoner complaints, raise awareness prisoner treatment, and conduct advocacy on behalf of prisoner rights.

Pushed by the OMP, positive steps are being made to improve the respect for prisoner rights. For instance, the country’s penal code is being revised. Nonetheless, in 2006, there were 60,000 prisoners in Morocco, twice the capacity of the country’s prisons. Overcrowding is exacerbating numerous problems within the prisons, such as poor nourishment, inadequate hygiene, lack of medical care, drug abuse, violence, and corruption.

Support to the OMP is initiating a dynamic whereby civil society works hand-in-hand with the government to improve conditions within the penitentiary system. In this way, MSI and the OMP are strengthening Morocco’s capacity to provide for the welfare of its most vulnerable citizens.

With MSI support, the OMP has initiated critical changes:

• Increased professionalization of the OMP through the recruitment and training of permanent staff;
• Increased services to prisoners through an active OMP complaints processing unit, prison visits, provision of medical care to prisoners, and decentralization of prison activities;
• Increased awareness of the OMP’s role through the creation of new communication tools, including a website, press releases, press conferences, and prison visits;
• Increased advocacy skills through targeted training for OMP members, the development of an advocacy strategy, and advocacy efforts in the areas of the death penalty and alternative sentencing; and
• Increased collaboration with the penitentiary system through joint activities, including the reactivation of prison oversight commissions, investigation on reported cases of prison violations, and the training of prison guards.

The “Support to the Moroccan Observatory of Prisons” project was recently extended until May 2008. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.

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