Morocco Unveils Sweeping Family Code Reforms, Addressing Overseas Citizens’ Concerns

The Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) had welcomed the project, stressing in a press release that several of its requests had been taken into account. The satisfaction expressed by the Council particularly concerns the simplification of the procedures for legalizing marriages and the implementation of a solution for inheritance rights in cases of mixed marriages.

Among the 139 proposed modifications in the text, other significant measures are to be noted. A proposal aims to allow MREs to contract marriage without the required presence of two Muslim witnesses, thus lifting a frequent logistical difficulty. On a more general level, the reform project provides for structural changes, such as the delegation of legal guardianship (wilaya) to the mother who has custody of the children in the event of divorce, and the revision of the conditions for derogation from the marriage of minors.

The main objective of this overhaul is to correct the shortcomings observed in the application of the current code and to align the legislation with the developments in Moroccan society. In its press release, the CCME welcomed the royal initiative and expressed the hope that the final legislative text will be up to the royal vision and the expectations of all the citizens concerned.