CRC: State Report of Morocco, 2013
Published: 5/Aug/2013
Source: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Third and fourth periodic reports of States parties due in 2009: Morocco [submitted 30 May 2012]
CRC/C/MAR/3-4
The registration of births
85. The registration of births in Morocco is a statutory requirement for the parents under the Criminal Code (art. 468). It is essential for the preservation of children’s identity and the recognition of their rights in the family and in society. Act No. 37-99 on civil status made it mandatory to declare the birth (or death) to the competent registrar, who issues a birth certificate, within a time limit of 30 days from birth (and within a time limit of one year for Moroccans resident abroad). Failure to do so results in a fine of 300–1200 dirhams. The birth is to be declared by the parents or testamentary guardian, the brother or nephew, to the registrar in the place of birth.
86. The public authorities have taken the following measures to secure the effective implementation of Act No. 37-99 and achieve a 100 per cent registration rate. This has involved a programme for the modernization of existing register offices and the creation of new ones.
87. In addition, the State has embarked on major awareness-raising efforts to make the registration of births standard practice and to remove social and cultural obstacles to registration, particularly in rural and isolated areas. This has led to an increase in declarations of births, which rose by 6.76 per cent in the first half of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006. In 2008, the birth registration rate reached 86 per cent.
88. It should nevertheless be emphasized that the civil status of more than a million Moroccans has yet to be registered. This figure includes the members of 53,430 households with no marriage certificate and 154,799 persons who have exceeded the time limits for registering their civil status. A significant number of children abandoned after birth are also missing from the register. The courts have received 132,655 applications for registration and have ruled on 59,509 cases, equivalent to 63.7 per cent of applications and 20.5 per cent of judgments handed down in relation to the total number of individuals identified but not entered in the register.
Nationality
89. As already emphasized above, the Moroccan legislature has amended article 6 of the Moroccan Nationality Code through Act No. 62-06. Under this amendment, a Moroccan woman married to a foreigner has the right to transmit her nationality to her children in accordance with article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This new measure has made it possible to restore the right of many children of Moroccan mothers and foreign fathers to obtain the nationality of their mother, with retrospective effect, on the same basis as the children of Moroccan fathers.
90. At the end of December 2011, the number of children of Moroccan mothers and foreign fathers who had been able to obtain from Moroccan nationality since the entry into force of the Nationality Code had reached 32,571. Supporting measures have been taken in relation to Act No. 62-06 to ensure that it is implemented properly, including the joint circular of the Ministry of Justice and Freedoms and the Ministry of the Interior setting out the procedure for registering the civil status of the children in question.
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