Moroccan Activists Push for Decriminalization of Same-Sex Relations and Premarital Sex

Created in 2019, the "Les hors–la–loi" (The Outlaws) collective works for the repeal of Article 490 of the Penal Code, which punishes consensual sexual relations outside marriage, as well as Article 489 of the same Code which considers as crimes licentious or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex. Thus, the activists of the collective are counting on the new parliamentarians to prevail.

The coalition is counting on the young parliamentarians all the more since "the new development model has issued its recommendations in this area", declared to Hespress its coordinator, Karima Nader. "The collective calls on these elites [...] to adopt new ideas in line with international conventions, based on the recommendations of the memorandum of the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH) which focused on the chapters relating to individual freedoms in the Penal Code," she added.

It should be noted that even the National Council for Human Rights has demanded that these articles take into account the recommendations of the 2011 Constitution, which is based on the renewal of discourse to address the issues of individual freedoms. Moreover, "the outlaws collective is now more enthusiastic in order to communicate with the new elites, and broaden the public debate on individual freedoms, with the aim of modifying the articles of the Penal Code, which is still under discussion between political parties, and thus work on other files in the years to come," concluded Karima Nader.