Migration in Morocco: History, Current Trends and Future ... - MGSoG

Western Sahara thus ended officially in 1976. At this time, however, Polisario 1
proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a government in exile in attempt to
create an independent Western Sahara. This resulted in violent tension in the region for
decades. In the 1990s a bicameral legislature was established as part of gradual political
reforms in the region (De Haas, 2009). Even today, however, this issue has major
significance in domestic politics.
Beyond territorial problems, since the 20 th century Morocco has been dealing with
several problems in political, economic, and social domains. As a result, and despite its
relative stability, Morocco is considered to be a developing country that is still
undergoing reforms in many different fields.
2.2 Political Reforms & Human Rights in Morocco
In the last few decades political reforms have characterized the country. Morocco,
which has been a strongly centralized monarchy, is evolving toward a political system
dominated by the power of the parliament (De Haas, 2009). Although the King still
maintains a large proportion of the executive power, today most of the government and
the Parliament are elected by democratic means (De Haas, 2009). Next to reforms of
governance, Morocco has taken decisive measures concerning human rights. During the
time of King Mohammed VI, who has been in power since 1999, considerable
improvement in human rights has been observed. More specifically, in the last two
decades Morocco has placed specific emphasis on the improvement of human rights in
the fields of torture, discrimination against women, and on child rights by ratifying a
number of United Nations conventions (World Bank, 2009). Moreover, the King set
priorities of the government’s political agenda in many different fields in an attempt to
help the Moroccan state raise itself to international norms. This implies that many
reforms will speed up in Morocco on the issues of justice, education, agriculture, industry,
energy, and water.
In spite of the continuing reforms, however, there are still sensitive subjects that
are hardly tolerated in the country (World Bank, 2009). For instance, even though the
1 Polisario, a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement, is the Spanish abbreviation of Frente Popular de
Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro ("Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río
de Oro"). Polisario has the target of liberating the Western Sahara from Morocco.
8