Hybrid Workshop: “Access to Nationality in Morocco: Positive Progress & Remaining Barriers”

The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy & International Affairs (IFI), the International Human Rights Clinic at the Boston University School of Law, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), held a hybrid workshop titled “Access to Nationality in Morocco: Positive Progress & Remaining Barriers” on May 11. The workshop included speakers from the NRC, Association Démocratiques des Femmes du Maroc, Africa Watch, Université Hassan II de Casablanca and Mohamad V University. 

Panel 1 addressed the challenges of accessing documentation as a barrier to nationality in Morocco, emphasizing the difficulties faced by parents and children in navigating the birth registration process due to strict requirements. Panel 2 discussed the positive development of Morocco's 2007 Nationality Code reform, allowing women to pass on Moroccan nationality to their children. However, gaps in the law were highlighted, including the lack of protections for children born to stateless parents and the inability of women to transmit nationality to non-Moroccan spouses. Meanwhile, panel 3 focused on the challenges faced by migrants and refugees in Morocco, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa. Despite Morocco's ratification of relevant treaties, the domestic legal framework to protect migrants and refugees is limited, increasing the risk of statelessness. Strategies to address these gaps were discussed.
 
To conclude, recommendations from civil society to address remaining barriers included making information more accessible, implementing a mobile caravan service to reach underserved regions, as well as reinstating the term "stateless" in the nationality code to protect children born to stateless individuals.