In November 2023 the association handed a memorandum to the Ministry of Justice; on 8 December 2023 the Commission in charge of revising the Family Code heard it in Rabat. Here are all of our proposals.
As part of the consultations launched by the Commission in charge of revising the Family Code, following the Royal Letter addressed to the Head of Government, the Moroccan Association for the Defence of the Rights of Fathers and Children handed a memorandum to the Ministry of Justice in November 2023. It contained amendment proposals mainly concerning custody, visiting time (the family bond), sanctions and child maintenance.
On 8 December 2023, the Commission in charge of revising the Moudawana received the association's delegation, led by its president Mr Driss Berzik, in a separate hearing in Rabat, alongside other organisations (People's Rights Centre, Moroccan Forum for Democracy and Human Rights, Moroccan Association for the Defence of Men Victims of Violence). The president told the press that the proposals aim to preserve the best interests of the family; the deputy secretary general recalled that "this is a family code, not a code for women or for men, and the revision must do justice to men — otherwise we will simply recycle the injustice on the other side".
The proposals in the memorandum
- Criminalise inciting children against one of their parents, subject the perpetrator to an urgent psychological assessment and apply the same penalties as for failure to hand over a child.
- Create a specialised emergency family court to rule quickly on complaints of obstruction and refusal to hand over a child: in the current system, judgments take months or years, fathers' and children's rights are lost, and the psychological and physical damage is done.
- A single notification and enforcement of the visiting order, instead of forcing the non-custodial parent to bring a bailiff to every visit — a source of financial exhaustion, blackmail and an indirect way of preventing him from spending time with his children.
- Award custody to the parent who deserves it, making the children's opinion decisive on the basis of a psychological assessment, relying on the verse "no mother shall be harmed because of her child, nor father because of his" and on articles 5 and 16 of CEDAW (same rights and responsibilities of both parents towards their children). The custodial parent must personally house the child; otherwise custody must pass to the other parent.
- Encourage shared custody, as in advanced countries (United States, Canada, Germany, Sweden), on the basis of psychology, sociology and education studies showing that a child needs both parents. Where this is impossible for a valid reason: grant the non-custodial parent Friday, Saturday and Sunday, all intermediate school holidays, half of the summer holidays and the religious holidays in alternate years, from the age of one.
- Joint legal guardianship, with conditions preventing the abduction of children inside or outside the country: no travel without the other parent's consent, in line with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
- Mandatory notification of any change of school through legal channels, any breach being treated as an obstruction liable to sanction; the custodial parent must not move more than 200 km away from the marital home, except for work or to live with their own parents, with supporting evidence, so as to curb abusive and vindictive relocations.
- A "violence against the family" unit: create it, or turn the "violence against women and children" unit into a family unit that also acts for the father and his children against violence and manoeuvres by the mother and her family, with the police report serving as evidence in cases of refusal or obstruction.
- The father's right to know his ex-wife's marital status via the marriage platform, in the interests of his children and in order to exercise his supervision and protection.
- Child maintenance shared between both parents according to their income, and alignment of the conditions and the age at which maintenance ends between boys and girls, in application of article 16 of CEDAW.
- Inheritance: reconsider the ta'sib of paternal uncles to the detriment of the deceased's daughters.
Our position after the publication of the proposals retained (December 2024)
After the Commission announced the proposals it had retained on 24 December 2024, the association's president expressed reservations on some points and asked for clarification on others:
- Legal guardianship must be genuinely joint: the father must be informed of every decision concerning his children (medical care, for example).
- The question of custody remains vague; it must go to the parent who deserves it.
- Support for excluding the marital home from the estate, since the Higher Council of Ulema has approved it.
- A warning against a tendency to restrict men's rights in maintenance matters, which can leave a father homeless if the home is awarded to the custodial parent.
- A request for new hearings of men's and women's associations before the final drafting of the bill.
In its statement of 22 July 2024, the association's board reaffirmed "its deep attachment to all the proposals contained in the memorandum" and its satisfaction that His Majesty the King had referred the Family Code to the Higher Council of Ulema.
Sources and references
- Hespress – Proposals to amend the Moudawana: an association warns about the father's right to the family bond (22 Nov. 2023)
- Kifache – Criminalising incitement against a parent and protecting the non-custodial parent from blackmail (22 Nov. 2023)
- Hespress – Fathers' rights associations before the Moudawana revision Commission (8 Dec. 2023)
- Kifache – The Commission in charge of revising the Moudawana hears associations (8 Dec. 2023)
- Hespress – Reactions to the proposals retained for the Moudawana reform (28 Dec. 2024)
- The association's Facebook post – statement of 22 July 2024