Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

24 February 2011

Copenhagen, February 23, 2011: The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) expresses its concern over the violent break up on Monday, February 21 of a peaceful sit-in in Rabat organized by youth from the Mouvement du 20 février and wishes to convey its solidarity and support with the protesters, including Ms Khadija Ryadi, president of the Association marocaine des droits humains (AMDH), who was assaulted during the demonstration.

The young people of Mouvement du 20 février who are organizing rallies throughout this week in order to maintain the momentum in the aftermath of last Sunday’s demonstrations in several Moroccan cities that called for political reform had organized a peaceful sit-in on Monday.

While the demonstration was moving ahead peacefully, rapid intervention forces, auxiliary forces and plainclothes policemen began insulting and intimidating the demonstrators before assaulting them with their truncheons. A number of demonstrators were particularly targeted, including Ms Ryadi of AMDH, who was violently hit on the abdomen by a man who, in all likelihood, was a plainclothes policeman. She lost consciousness before being rushed to Ibn Sina Hospital near Rabat.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network condemns this act of violence that appears to have intentionally targeted the AMDH in reprisal for its action in favor of human rights and democracy. The EMHRN is preoccupied by the hardening attitude of the Moroccan authorities even though the demonstrations on Sunday had taken place peacefully and without serious incidents.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network calls upon the Moroccan authorities to:

• Protect the physical and psychological integrity of Ms Khadija Ryadi as well as of all human rights defenders and peaceful demonstrators in Morocco;
• Launch an independent and impartial investigation on the violence that took place on Monday, February 21;
• Respect and encourage the freedoms of expression, association and assembly and take all necessary measures to put an end that all forms of threat and harassment;
• Initiate a dialogue with all sectors of civil society that call for a restart of the reform process aiming at strengthening the rule of law and democracy and progressing on social issues.