Human Rights Watch has called for the release of six men sentenced to prison for homosexual conduct in Morocco, arguing that the convictions violate the men’s rights to privacy. The Court of First Instance in Ksar el Kbir (north of the country) convicted the men for violating article 489 of Morocco’s penal code, which criminalises ‘lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex.’

In rural Morocco, many girls receive no secondary school education while others never go to school at all. The school attendance rate for girls across the country is 60.3%, but in rural areas it is just 16.5%. The main reasons: rigid traditional attitudes, the isolation of some douars (settlements) and the lack of roads and public transport.

The annual report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), released ahead of World AIDS Day on Saturday (December 1st), said that while HIV infection has stabilised worldwide, AIDS "remains the top cause of death in Africa." According to UN statistics disclosed in the November 20th report, the number of people in Morocco carrying the virus rose from 18,000 in 2006 to 20,000 this year.

Top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón has ordered the opening of an inquiry into allegations of genocide in the Moroccan-occupied territory of Western Sahara. The Western Saharan plaintiffs are also looking for accountability for the 542 Sahrawis that Morocco made "disappear" during the war with the Sahrawi pro-independence movement Polisario Front from 1975-1991, according to the group "Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State" (ASVDH).

Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi's newly-announced government includes a record number of female ministers. A total of seven will lead ministries ranging from energy to culture, compared with only two in the previous government.

In a conversation with Magharebia, al-Watan al-An Editor-in-Chief Abderrahim Ariri expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision of a Casablanca appeals court's on September, 18 to uphold convictions – although with reduced sentences – against him and journalist Moustapha Hormatallah. Rather than use the press code, the authorities brought criminal charges against the two journalists. A Casablanca appeals court handed Ariri a five-month suspended prison sentence and Moustapha Hormatallah a seven-month prison sentence on September, 18 for publishing classified government documents.

The issue of women in parliament has returned to centre stage in Morocco following the country's recent legislative elections. In 2002, women were elected to 35 of the lower house of the Moroccan legislature's 325 seats; on September 7, 2007, only 34 were selected. Only four women managed to transcend the local lists: Yasmina Baddou of the Istiqlal party, Latifa Jbabdi of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, independent candidate Fatiha Layadi and Fatna Lkhail of the Popular Movement.

Moroccan non-governmental organisations have begun to issue reports outlining their observations of the country's legislative elections on September 7, 2007. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) wrote in its report that the election laws currently in force contribute to a 'dispersion of votes and the Balkanization of the political landscape; something that could undermine the parliament and the government emanating therefrom'.

The September 7th legislative elections in Morocco appear to have driven away left-wing parties and given an edge to the right and conservative parties that may enable them to form the next government within an alliance of 4 or 5 parties. In spite of the larger number of participating parties – 33, as compared to 26 parties in 2002 - only several of the seven major parties were able to bolster their position, and their share increased from 72% in 2002 to 80% of the next House.

The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has been scolded on press freedom violations since he took over the kingdom from his father. At a news conference in Casablanca, the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) Secretary General, Robert Ménard, told King Mohammed to understand that “one is free to comment.” he news conference was held to raise concern about the decline in press freedom in the run-up to the 7 September legislative elections. It was a follow up to a letter the RSF chief wrote to King Mohammed on 27 August.

Predicting what the ballot boxes may yield at the closing of the September 7th elections is near impossible. Opinions vary, and citizens are split between optimists with a bright outlook on the country’s future and pessimists who refuse to engage in politics at all. One Democratic Social Movement candidate said it is truly difficult to know the coming political map in any way. "The method of voting, the abundance of political parties and the multiplicity of election symbols, in addition to the similarity between the platforms of some parties … make it difficult to predict any result."

Thirty-three political parties have fielded candidates for Morocco's September 7th legislative elections, according to a Magharebia report. Two additional parties, Annahj Addimocrati (The Democratic Path) and the Moroccan Amazigh Democratic Party, plan to boycott the poll. Founded in 1995, Annahj Addimocrati has never taken part in an election. Its main ally, the Parti de l'Avant-garde Democratique et Socialiste (Avant-garde Democratic and Socialist Party, or PADS) has ended its own boycott of the elections and will run for the first time since its creation in 1984.

Morocco and the Polisario Front are meeting for a second round of UN-brokered talks in New York to try to resolve their 32-year dispute over Western Sahara. The Polisario, or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro, is a political and military group fighting for the separation of Western Sahara from Morocco.

The attention of Moroccan bloggers turned recently to the latest report by the Committee to Protect Journalists on the state of press freedom in the country. Baraka wrote that "the report accurately describes the contradictions of a power that wants to open itself up, but without giving up the ability to censor the independent press." In his blog on journalism and freedom of speech, Larbi shared his take on the arrest of journalists Abderrahim Ariri and Mustapha Hormatallah for allegedly publishing elements of a classified report from the secret service.

The Social Movement for Equality and Citizenship, a movement established by the Democratic League for Women's Rights in Morocco, has put forth a new project in which it calls on Moroccan women to vote responsibly during the coming legislative elections and to defend their demands. The movement named the project, which receives support from the Fund for Supporting Equality between the Sexes, the "Responsible Citizen Project".

Following a protracted debate, the Moroccan Parliament announced on July 23rd that it passed a controversial new law governing the conduct of public officials, Magharebia News reports. The new legislation requires top civil servants and state officials, including parliamentary representatives, to declare their personal assets.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the arrest of Abderrahim Ariri, the publisher of the weekly "Al Watan Al An" ("The Nation Now"), and one of his journalists, Mostapha Hurmatallah, on 17 July 2007 in Casablanca after they published the text of an internal security memo circulated by the General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST), an intelligence agency.

Child abuse has increased 50% over the last year in Morocco, according to a recent report by the Coalition against Sexual Abuse of Children (COCASSE). The report concludes that approximately 80% of child abuse cases involve sexual exploitation, and 75% of the perpetrators have a familial relationship with their victims. Most victims of sexual exploitation are children under age 10.

The word on the streets of Casablanca, the bustling, commercial capital of Morocco, is out: The emperor has new clothes. He also has a new baby girl, and the Moroccan press made a splash about it. Weeks after the birth of King Mohammed VI's daughter, Princess Khadija, on Feb. 28, Morocco's two leading women's magazines offered an "exclusive" visual paean to her little, royal highness.

Human Rights Watch mourns the death of Moroccan human rights activist Driss Benzekri, who died on Sunday after a long illness at the age of 57. Arrested for his left-wing student activities in 1974, Benzekri served the next 17 years as a political prisoner. Freed in 1991 by the late King Hassan II, Benzekri immersed himself in the human rights work that consumed him until the end of his days.