“Human Rights are weaponized to serve some interests and agendas, especially by activists, and a few European MPs who have utilized this “noble” concept to score political brownie points.” According to Lahcen Haddad, Chairperson of the Morocco-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee, that political set-up was used against Morocco.
Human rights are not the only aspect of multilateral relations which can be weaponized. Other means of manipulation–such as when Algeria forbade Morocco’s planes from flying over its airspace, or when it cut trade ties with Spain when the latter began to favor Morocco’s position on the Sahara–could be included within this category of power politics, added former Minister of Tourism and university professor Haddad in an exclusive interview with Barlaman Today.
Indeed, human rights are considered fertile ground on which to battle rival thought, which some entities–countries, political parties, and activists–actively use to attack or defend specific agendas and interests based on ideological and political principles.
Throughout the evolution of Moroccan journalist Omar Radi’s case, the European Parliament (EP) sought to interfere in Morocco’s domestic issues, primarily with respect to its legal system and its accompanying ideological policy on human rights. On Jan. 19, the E.P. passed a resolution “rating” the country’s level of tolerance for freedom of expression.
This move occurred due to a biased report produced by Amnesty International (A.I.) alleging that the Moroccan government had been eavesdropping on public figures whom it deemed a threat to the interests of the State, specifically on Radi, who incidentally is in jail after being found guilty of a rape crime.
While the Kingdom is targeted for human rights violations and muzzling free speech by some European M.P.s who voted against the Kingdom in their apparent certainty that Morocco has committed such abuses, they interestingly abstained from voting on Algeria’s record on the same issue, leaving Morocco’s eastern neighbor completely unchecked.
Haddad stated in this regard that Morocco is aware that those who abstained from voting against Algeria in this regard are composed of various M.P.s from the far-left wing, in addition to rogue sympathizers of the Algerian Revolution that was “hijacked” by the military and turned into a dictatorship.
He continued by saying that Algeria has relations with some specific E.P. members who choose their “clan,” obviously somewhat of the double standard, unprincipled, yet following an “X” ideology.
For instance, the E.P. passed a resolution, in early May, demanding the Algerian authorities promptly and unconditionally release Algerian journalist Ihsane ElKadi and all those unlawfully jailed and punished for exercising their right to free expression.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee Chairperson revealed that the E.P. froze like a deer in the headlights of hypocrisy by not permitting the Moroccan side to defend itself in silencing its representatives, while it simultaneously legitimized a biased NGO’s report.
This “Operation Paralysis,” if you will, was unilateral because the E.P. followed directly to its plenary session and voted, without even democratically holding a debate with the other party to the issue -Morocco- which ironically had actually been one of the reasons why this committee was created in the first place.
Haddad highlighted that the Joint Parliamentary Commission aims to facilitate communication between the two legislative institutions on different topics like migration, renewable resources, security, human rights, and trade; in other words, facilitating E.U.-Morocco relations in these areas under the jurisdiction of the two governing bodies.
The Commission gathers 30 members from both chambers of Morocco’s parliament regardless of political affiliation, with an identical number for the European side.
Clearly, the EP acted against the Kingdom in a unilateral move. Yet, the issue is still up for discussion, and for “damage control” purposes, talks need to commence immediately in order to ensure clarity and transparency, and to gauge the level at which Morocco’s neighbors to the north intend to continue the partnership. In this case, these joint efforts should be built on more “solid ground” than what currently exists, added Haddad.
Haddad also revealed the sometimes-intricate differences between what are often referred to as “corruption” and “lobbying.” For him, the word “corruption” denotes paying an entity to do something illegal and / or unethical. As for lobbying, he defined it as a democratic process that provides citizens the opportunity advocate for their own interests to the government and to try to convince them to act legislatively as such. The lobbying process begins with the fact of having registered transparency of intent.
Lobbying is legal in many countries; for example, it is mentioned in the Constitution of the United States, and in institutions such as the European Parliament.
Morocco has indeed on occasion utilized this legal tool at its disposal to advocate for its first national cause inside the E.P., which by all standards of ethics in international relations and law is a very common and legitimate practice (to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity). Oddly though, the European institution has at times misperceived this self-advocacy for corruption.
This fray was exacerbated largely by Amnesty International’s subjective, unprofessional reporting procedure, the organization’s allegations of which against the Kingdom have since been refuted and de-legitimized by multiple experts working in the field of information technology / computer science, added Haddad.
It is important to note that Amnesty’s report that does not rely on specific data which irrefutably proves that the Moroccan government actually hacked individuals’ phones. “It was a shortcut, to accuse a state of such affairs, you need real proof, which they don’t have.”
Jonathan Scott, a U.S. computer science expert, has produced many technical reports that scientifically cleared and exonerated Morocco of all claims of deploying the infamous Pegasus malware.
In the same vein, French-Swiss writer and journalist Alain Jourdan reported in his book, The Pegasus Affair that, “No proof of Moroccan involvement exists…. In the Pegasus scandal, some of the media outlets which quoted information from Forbidden Stories did not do any investigative work, cross-checking, or verification. Moreover, there was no internal debate in the editorial offices.”
This issue–which has been dragging on for months–is damaging the development of links between Morocco and the E.U., just as it is creating tension between the Kingdom and the countries which voted for this unjust resolution–which by the way will be enforced via legislation on “foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation”–which was established on May 15, following the European Parliament resolution regarding Pegasus Affairs. The question is, where are things going…?