Morocco’s COVID-19 Emergency Measures Spark Concerns Over Legal Overreach

Can everything be done in the name of the fight against Covid-19?, wonders l’Economiste. According to the same daily, the government has shown firmness in the previous months, trying to circumvent "in an exceptional way, certain legal procedures".

One of the first decisions taken by the government was the establishment of the state of health emergency, through a decree-law, pending the reopening of Parliament in April to bring it into compliance. Upon their return to the hemicycle, the deputies strictly followed the normal procedure by adopting the draft law with the competent committees at the level of the two Houses of Parliament. It was then reintroduced in the form of a bill, to be validated after the opening of the October session. For the political scientist Mohamed Amrani Boukhobza, the kingdom, faced with the urgency, made the decision that was necessary.

Another measure criticized by the government and digested by the government is to have granted super powers to the walis and governors, who were on the front line in the fight against the pandemic, specifies the same daily.

This crisis has also reinforced the return of the welfare state. "Beyond the management of this struggle, the welfare state is also very present in terms of mitigating the effects of the crisis and in the recovery efforts," the same source indicates. Voices were raised in the kingdom as soon as the government decided to launch the tracing of people infected with Covid-19. This decision had raised concerns among several citizens, who feared for their personal data. They were reassured about the confidentiality of the measure.

Unanimously, Internet users had criticized the draft law 22-20 on the regulation of social networks. According to the same daily, many articles in this draft law have been described as liberticide by Internet users. They are considered a real regression compared to the achievements in terms of freedoms.