World Coalition AGM among largest abolitionist events in the Arab world

Governance

on 6 June 2011

The press conference was held at the Rabat Bar Association on May 25th at the invitation of the Moroccan Coalition Against the Death Penalty, which is also the host of the annual meeting that will take place on June 24-26 2011 in Rabat, Morocco.
It will be one of the largest abolitionist gathering that ever took place in the Arab World and it comes at a moment in which the worldwide attention is focusing on a region that is going through important changes at a political and social level.
The event was moderated by a Omar Benamar of Amnesty International Morocco and saw the participation of Abderrahim Jamai, senior lawyer and coordinator of the Moroccan Coalition, Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, executive secretary of the World Coalition, and Maria Donatelli, coordinator of the World Coalition.
 Jamai stressed the current situation in Morocco where the constitution is under review as a consequence of the Arab Spring and the protest of the “20 Février” movement. There is strong hope among local abolitionist actors that the abolition of the death penalty will be inscribed in the constitution.
He also discussed the ratification of the UN Protocol on the abolition of the death penalty, hoping that this would be one of the constitutional assembly’s recommendations to the government.
After a presentation of the World Coalition by Chenuil-Hazan, Donatelli introduced the programme for the three-day conference that will take place at the Institut Supérieur de la Magistrature thanks to the invitation of the Moroccan Ministry of Justice.

High-level personalities

The General Assembly will open on Friday June 24th with an official ceremony in the presence of high-level Moroccan and international personalities.
As every year the World Coalition together with its host will organize a day of seminars and roundtables open to the public to raise awareness on the various aspects of the death penalty.
The open sessions that will take place on June 25th will address two main issues: the death penalty in the Arab world and the inhumanity of the death penalty – the theme of the 2011 World Day against the death penalty.
The general public will also have the chance to attend four different training sessions addressing new abolitionist tools.
The final day of the conference will be restricted to World Coalition members, to discuss administrative and strategic issues. It will also be an opportunity for the World Coalition to offer its members training seminars as part of its mission to coordinate and strengthen abolitionist forces.