Morocco demonstrated strong overall performance in the 2024 Regional Index on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), with particularly high results across several key dimensions. The country achieved a full score of 100% in Data Systems and Statistics, 85.8% in the Provision of Services Funded by the State, and 79.6% in Legal Framework and Public Policies. These results reflect sustained progress in legislative reform, service delivery, and evidence-based policymaking. Lower scores were recorded in Professional Capacity of First Respondents (69.0%) and National Coordination and Regional Cooperation (65.0%), indicating areas that require further institutional strengthening.
Morocco has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), while maintaining a reservation to Article 29 and declarations to Articles 2 and 15. These reservations relate to constitutional provisions governing succession to the Moroccan throne and aspects of personal status law. Despite these limitations, the Moroccan Constitution affirms the principles of human rights, prohibits discrimination based on gender, and commits the State to promoting gender equality and women’s rights.
The country has made notable legislative progress in combating violence against women and girls, most prominently through the enactment of Law No. 103-13 on Combating Violence Against Women in 2018. The law defines violence against women as any act or omission based on gender discrimination that results in physical, psychological, sexual, or economic harm. It adopts a comprehensive approach encompassing prevention, protection, prosecution, and support, strengthens penalties for violence committed within the family, and criminalizes multiple forms of violence across public and private settings, including forced marriage, economic violence, public and digital sexual harassment. However, certain forms of violence, such as marital rape, are not explicitly criminalized.
The Ministry of Solidarity, Social Integration, and Family leads national policies and awareness-raising efforts to combat VAWG and oversees the implementation of the National Strategy to Combat Violence Against Women (2020–2030). Specialized support services are provided through ten State-run shelters, in addition to more than one hundred multifunctional centres offering legal, psychological, and social assistance to women survivors. The State has also established 132 specialized police units dedicated to supporting women victims of violence, particularly domestic violence, and designated contact officers within all police directorates to facilitate access to services.
Morocco has put in place cooperation mechanisms among government ministries and institutions, including a national protocol linking police, shelters, hospitals, courts, ministries, and civil society organizations. An institutional information system supports referral pathways and data sharing between stakeholders. While these mechanisms demonstrate progress in national coordination, the 2024 assessment highlights the need for stronger inter-ministerial implementation, institutionalized training for first responders, gender-responsive budgeting, and enhanced regional cooperation to ensure consistent and effective responses to violence against women and girls.