TRIBUTE TO MR. HERZENNI, CHAIRMAN OF (FORMER) ADVISORY COUNCIL ON HUMAN RIGHTS

This tribute will be held on October 5, 2011, on the occasion of the first regular session of the National Human Rights Council. The Council was created on 1 March 2011, but its members were appointed on September 29, 2011.

Mr. Herzenni presided over the former Advisory Council on Human Rights between May 2007 and March 2011, succeeding late Driss Benzekri. He worked on several key projects, particularly in the following areas:

- follow-up of the implementation of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations;

- outreach policy for the protection and promotion of human rights, through the creation of the Advisory Council’s regional offices;

- promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights;

- strengthening relations of cooperation and partnership with national and international stakeholders concerned with human rights issues;

- implementation of programs to promote human rights;

- strengthening of the Council's adherence to the international human rights instruments;

- Contribution to the creation of the National Human Rights Council.

As chairman of the Advisory Council on Human Rights, Mr. Herzenni supervised the follow-up of the implementation of the Moroccan truth commission’s recommendations related to:

- individual and community (collective) reparation: continuing the process of financial compensation, establishing a system of medical coverage for victims and their rights holders, and launching the community reparation program;

- elucidation of the truth: furthering investigations and publishing the lists of victims of enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention;

- legal and institutional reforms: issuing an advisory opinion on the reform of justice, reviewing the draft penal code and the penal procedure code in light of the international human rights standards, and launching debate on security governance. In the same context, Mr. Herzenni launched the IER2 Program which aims to facilitate the implementation of the IER’s recommendations in the areas of history, memory and archive.

Regarding the Council’s outreach policy, Mr. Herzenni’s Council opened seven regional administrative offices in Laayoune, Agadir, Oujda, Ouarzazate, Midelt, Beni Mellal and Al Hoceima. Objective: strengthening the Council's action at the local level and ensuring access to its services and the dissemination of the culture and values of human rights and democracy.

Mr. Herzenni listed the new generations of human rights, i.e. economic, social and cultural rights, among the Council's priorities. The Council published, in partnership with the United Nations Programme for Development (PUND), a study on "The right to development: between the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Millennium Development Goals."

Regarding the protection of human rights, Mr. Herzenni oversaw the first phase of the implementation of the Citizenship Platform to promote the culture of human rights and supervised the contribution of the Advisory Council to drafting the National Plan of Action on Democracy and Human Rights (the Council was entrusted with the Secretariat General of the Plan’s steering committee). The final draft of the Plan was submitted to Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi in July 2010.

Mr. Herzenni was concerned with the strengthening of cooperation and partnership relations with national and international institutional, government, private sector, academic and civil society stakeholders (more than 20 partnership agreements).
He strengthened the efforts of the Council to engage with the international human rights instruments. Indeed, the joined the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions (ICC) that accredited the Advisory Council as an “A” status national institution. The ICC’s “A” status accreditation means that the institution complies with the Paris Principles, governing national human rights institutions.

During Mr. Herzenni’s tenure, the Advisory Council chaired the African Network of National Human Rights Institutions, and engaged in the Euro-Arab dialogue on human rights. It initiated, as well, the Arab-Ibero American dialogue of national human rights institutions.

On the other hand, Mr. Ahmed Herzenni supervised the drafting of a proposal related to reorganization of the Council to strengthen its conformity with the Paris Principles and reinforce its independence and pluralism. Indeed, the National Human Rights Council was created, following this proposal, on March 1st, 2011.

This tribute will be held on October 5, 2011 at Sofitel Rabat - Jardin des Roses, at 06:00 p.m..