Morocco Rights Groups Boycotting Marrakech Meeting
A group of Moroccan human rights groups announced Monday they would boycott an international human rights conference being held in their country because of consistent government interference. The Moroccan Association of Human Rights, the country's most active and well known independent rights group, said they were initially invited to participate but then sidelined and excluded from the preparation for the 2nd World Forum for Human Rights. The statement, which was also signed by seven other organizations, described how calls to release detainees and end a crackdown on various groups was ignored, prompting the boycott. The move also comes after Interior Minister Mohammed Hassad railed against human rights groups in June, saying they sullied the reputation of security services by accusing them of torture. The New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement earlier this month November pointing out that the recent crackdown on human rights groups in Morocco, in