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Morocco: a Partner for Democracy status to strengthen cooperation

21/12/2010 President

PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu today encouraged Morocco to pursue its ambitious objective to obtain the newly created PACE status of Partner for Democracy. “This will bring our co-operation to a new level,” he said. In this respect, the President recalled the broad reforms that the country has undertaken during the last decade in the political, economic and social sphere, and all the work done in order to expand fundamental freedoms and to strengthen democratic institutions.

He also stressed that the Moroccan parliament has already made a formal commitment to embrace the values and principles of the Council of Europe and to use its experience as widely as possible. "It is now time to give this commitment a specific substance," he said. He thus encouraged the authorities to make further progress in the democratisation of the country, paying special attention to issues such as giving bigger rights to women, as well as fully respecting human rights in combating terrorism.
 
In addition, Mr Çavusoglu had an opportunity to gain a better insight of the Moroccan position on the Western Sahara issue, and recalled PACE resolution adopted in 2004, which supports a negotiated and mutually acceptable solution in the framework of the UN.
 
During his visit, PACE President met the Speakers of the two Chambers of parliament, the Interior Minister, the Foreign Minister and the President of the Consultative Council on Human Rights.

Links

Announcement of the visit