As anticipation grows among Moroccans for reforms to the Family Code, Minister of Justice Abdellatif Ouahbi has taken the lead by directly addressing the controversial issue of underage marriage. He suggested that the new version of the Penal Code could include the criminalization of this practice and provide for severe penalties in this respect.
Ouahbi’s anticipation of the outcome of discussions concerning the Family Code, currently in the hands of the Ulemas following royal directives, notably on underage marriage, was evident in a written response on the exploitation of the exception for such marriages.
Thus, Ouahbi indicated that “the Ministry of Justice, overseeing the amendment of the Penal Code, is considering criminalizing this act and punishing it”, adding that the Ministry “is aware of the importance of positive interaction with certain social issues requiring consensual solutions to bring legal texts into line with international laws and human rights.”
Ouahbi’s response to the President of the Progress and Socialism Group (PPS), Rachid Hamouni, on the issue of underage marriage, maintains that “the Ministry of Justice has made a group of social workers available to the courts to carry out social investigations ordered by the judge”, stressing that these measures are part of the Ministry’s orientation “towards protecting children and taking their best interests into account”.
The government official noted that “the Moroccan legislator has taken the initiative to harmonize national law through the Family Code, which has established a precise and strict legal procedure for the marriage of those who have not reached the age of 18, in order to protect them from any exploitation that could harm their interests and to preserve their rights”, referring to Morocco’s accession to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and other relevant conventions.
The document also noted that the Moroccan legislator “has conferred on the family judge in charge of marriage the power to authorize the marriage of those who have not reached marriageable age on an exceptional basis when the interest so requires and the requisite conditions are met”, affirming that the law requires that “the marriage authorization issued by the family judge in charge of marriage be reasoned.”
In his speech on marriage authorization for minors, Ouahbi stated that “the judge must demonstrate the interest and reasons justifying the issuance of the authorization after having heard the minor’s parents or legal representative, and having resorted to a medical expertise or a social investigation”, insisting that these exceptional measures are “guarantees that the judiciary is careful to realize and apply on the ground as the case may be, by refusing requests for authorization to marry under the age of majority whenever the judge considers that the interest does not exist or that harm could be caused to the minor by this marriage”.
The ministerial official went on to state that “the conclusion of marriage contracts for minors outside this procedure, under any name and in any form whatsoever, such as marriage by contract or agreement between the person wishing to marry and the minor’s legal guardian, is considered an illegal act which must be combated by all legal means.”
In this respect, Ouahbi explained that “the legislator has, through the law on combating violence against women, criminalized coercion into marriage by violence or threat with a prison sentence of six months to one year and a fine of 10,000 to 30,000 dirhams”, noting that “this penalty is doubled if the coercion or threat is exercised against a woman because of her sex, a minor, a person in a situation of disability or with a known mental deficiency”.
As part of the measures taken by the Ministry of Justice regarding the issue of underage marriage, Ouahbi recalled the Ministry’s “participation in numerous national and regional meetings to raise awareness of the negative effects of underage marriage and highlight the role of national legislation in their necessary protection”.
Ouahbi described the question of under-age marriage as “one of the issues that arouses great interest on the part of various components of Moroccan society”, stressing “its direct impact on children’s rights to life, development, well-being and physical and psychological security, as well as other rights guaranteed by national laws and relevant international conventions.”
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