Despite efforts by civil society and the government, violence against women remains an ever-present problem in Morocco, a women's rights NGO announced on 27 October. To reach its conclusions, the Chama Centre for Refuge, Counselling and Legal Advice documented 302 cases of gender abuse over the period 2009-2010.

A new round of talks on the Western Sahara will aim to break an impasse over the future of the disputed North African territory, the UN says. The meeting of Western Sahara's independent movement Polisario Front and Moroccan officials has been scheduled for next week in New York.

The Moroccan government has suspended all operations by the pan-Arab television network Al-Jazeera in the country for allegedly failing to follow the 'rules of serious and responsible journalism'. The Qatar-based network condemned the decision and said its editorial guidelines would not be affected by the closure of its bureau in Rabat and the withdrawal of accreditation for its local staff.

The Feminine Action Union (UAF), a Moroccan association for the promotion of women's rights, announced on 13 October the creation of the National Observatory for the Improvement of Women's Image in the Media. The new centre will monitor violations against Moroccan women's dignity in the media, including in advertisement and art productions, at national, regional and international levels.

Faced with the woes of the global economic crisis, an increasing number of Moroccan expatriates are coming back home. Meanwhile, the government is intensifying effort to aid the community abroad as well as help them maintain ties with their home country. The number of Moroccans living abroad (MRE) that have decided to return home is up 8 per cent year over year.

The story of a 37-year-old man who died after being detained by police has grabbed the attention of bloggers and online activists, says this post on Global Voices. It comes amidst a climate of decline in freedom of the press in the country and is not at isolated incident, says the post.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has expressed deep sorrow and complete solidarity with the board of 'Nichane', a Moroccan magazine that has decided to close down indefinitely as a result of financial difficulties arising from an advertising boycott. Pro-government companies had decided not to place any ads in the magazine because of its editorial line in support of freedoms and addressing corruption.

Chekib El-Khiari, a human rights defender and journalist, is serving a three-year prison sentence in Morocco after he denounced corruption of some Moroccan officials. Amnesty International believes that Chekib El-Khiari’s conviction is politically motivated and that he is being punished for daring to mention the involvement of high-ranking officials in a drug-trafficking ring. Amnesty International considers Chekib El-Khiari to be a prisoner of conscience, solely detained for his anti-corruption statements and his human rights activities.

No state in the world has recognised the Moroccan annexation of Western Sahara. Still, the EU is paying millions of euros annually to the government of Morocco to allow EU vessels to fish in the waters of Western Sahara. The EU fisheries activities in Western Sahara must immediately come to an end. Morocco continues to refuse to cooperate with the decolonisation process in Western Sahara, thereby defying more than 100 UN resolutions that insist on the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination. Simultaneously, Moroccan authorities commit human rights violations against Saharawis who voice their political views. No EU states, nor the UN, recognise the Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.

Morocco must combat corruption by adopting an overall strategy that includes more than just punitive measures, according to the Central Authority for the Prevention of Corruption (ICPC). "Punishment alone is not enough," ICPC chief Abdesselam Aboudrar said Tuesday (July 6th) in Rabat at the presentation of his group's annual report.

In a move that probes the limits of freedom of expression in Morocco, a group of gays and lesbians is working to raise their community's profile by publishing a trail-blazing magazine. The organisation Kif Kif (Similar) released a limited number of copies of the first edition of Mithly (Gay) in April, without applying for a government licence that they claim would have been denied.

Thirty Moroccan teachers are continuing a two-month hunger strike to highlight the issue of family reunification and the right of women to work near home. Many people with public-sector jobs, including those in education and health care, say that living apart from family members while posted to remote locations is a hardship.

Morocco has expelled foreign Christians who tried to convert Muslims because, as a moderate Islamic state, it wants to foster "order and calm" and avoid a clash between faiths, its Islamic affairs minister said. The government has expelled around 100 foreign Christians since March, many of them aid workers, in what Western diplomats have called an unprecedented crackdown on undercover preaching.

Samir Bergachi is unstoppable. Barely 23 years old, the young Moroccan is simply not content to live his homosexuality openly in a country where it is considered as a crime. For the past 6 years, Samir has been running the first Moroccan gay association, kif-kif. And only a month ago, he caused a real stir: the launching of Mithly, the first gay magazine in the Arab world. Some find his initiatives inadmissible. Others admire his courage.

Morocco plans to lease 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of farmland per year to improve yields, satisfy growing national demand and boost export sales, its agriculture minister said on Thursday. But Aziz Akhennouch told Reuters the north African kingdom had no plans to join a continent-wide trend of selling farmland outright to foreign companies and governments that want to secure their future food supplies.

In celebration of Earth Day's 40th anniversary, the Kingdom of Morocco announced an unprecedented National Charter for Environment and Sustainable Development, the first commitment of its kind in Africa and the first in the Arab World.

As 36 imprisoned Saharawi activists continue a hunger strike from seven Moroccan jails, Konstantina Isidoros writes of the 'groundswell of international condemnation of Morocco's behaviour'. Protesting against Morocco's longstanding occupation of Western Sahara and the human rights abuses suffered by the indigenous Saharawi population, the hunger strikers' action represents the latest peaceful challenge to the Moroccan state's illegal claims on Western Sahara, stresses Isidoros, from individuals widely recognised as 'prisoners of conscience'.

Morocco plans to train schoolchildren to help lure other youngsters into the classroom under a government initiative aimed at boosting enrolment rates. Some 500,000 schoolchildren will be trained to take part in the "Child for Child" census-taking programme that the Department of Education launched on Thursday (March 25th). Students aged 6-15 will work with teachers and officials in April and May to encourage youth who are not enrolled in school to return to their studies.

For many Moroccan working women, the trade-off between home lives and jobs occurs at the expense of time and peace of mind. While women have acquired some freedom in the working environment, attitudes have not changed as regards the role of a woman within the family. The equality they seek has not yet been achieved on the domestic front.

A parliamentary commission hopes to reconcile tensions between the government and the media with specific recommendations, commission co-ordinator Jamal Eddine Naji said on March 9th at a press conference in Rabat. Parliament launched the commission March 1st to spur a national debate about the press between media representatives, members of parliament, political figure, the government and the public.