Springtime of Dignity: Coalition For a Penal Code That Protects Women From Discrimination and Violence

Declaration of the Creation of the Coalition:
"Springtime of Dignity"
For a penal code that protects women from discrimination and violence

The coalition, "Springtime of Dignity," is bringing together associations that defend and promote women's and human rights and that have decided to work in synergy in a lobbying movement, "For a penal code that protects women from discrimination and violence."

The coalition, "Springtime of Dignity," draws its strength from its values and accomplishments:

• from Dignity in its entirety as a fundamental value and as it constitutes, along with Equality, Liberty, and Justice, the foundations of human rights taken in the universal sense,
• The outcome of battles led by women's movements, throughout the course of the past two decades, that have made possible countless accomplishments,
• The plurality of its members, which represent a richness in themselves, and which have made available the potential for capitalization upon, and diversity and complementarity among experiences and expertises,
• its profound conviction of the imperative necessity that Morocco harmonizes its national laws—specifically, its penal code—with its international agreements, and that it takes opportunities available to consider the uniqueness and potential of the current context of Morocco

The coalition, "Springtime of Dignity," draws from its analysis and observation a global philosophy and measures for the penal code in place,

Despite the amendment of certain articles of the Penal Code in 2003, the text currently in effect presents many limits contributing to weakening the protective measures of the law, specifically:

- Its patriarchal philosophy, and conservatism founded upon the denial of individual rights and liberties;

- Its structure, including in a security-based approach conferring priority to public order--to the detriment of individual liberties and fundamental rights--and considering crimes against the person of the woman as attempts on public order and morale and on family honor.

- Its dispositions, which reduce women to bodies to be watched, without procuring an effective protection against the various forms of discrimination and violence they experience

The coalition, "springtime of Dignity" demands a penal code:

• Condemning all forms of discrimination,
• Preserving the dignity of women, their physical and psychological integrity, and their autonomy,
• Guaranteeing to women their individual liberties and their fundamental rights,
• Protecting women from gender-based violence by criminalizing it;
• And guaranteeing conditions of equality between the sexes and full citizenship for women.

It's for these reasons that the "Springtime of Dignity,"

- Considers that the penal code demands a radical overhauling to the end of protecting individuals, women and men alike, and thus society as a whole,

- Announces that it will continue to act as a driving force by, unceasingly, making known its memorandum detailing its propositions and demands

- Calls out to all Moroccan men and women that share this vision to support and contribute to the undertaking of this cause.