Human Trafficking: Morocco completes alignment with international instruments & standards

Morocco marks a new milestone in the development of its legal framework to combat organized crime and human trafficking following the publication of the new Criminal Procedure Code in the Official Gazette on 8 September 2025. This step is part of the country’s efforts to align national legislation with its international commitments.

The National Coordination Commission for Measures to Combat and Prevent Human Trafficking (CNCLT) emphasized, in a statement, that, as part of Morocco’s commitment to international reference standards, the new Code fully aligns with relevant international and regional instruments.

At the forefront of these instruments is the Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, aimed at preventing, suppressing, and punishing trafficking in persons, especially women and children (the Palermo Protocol 2000), particularly regarding standards for victim assistance and protection, the statement noted.

Similarly, the new Criminal Procedure Code aligns with the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (2005), especially in terms of victim identification, reflection and recovery periods, compensation, and legal remedies.

It also complies with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, notably the principle of non-criminalization of victims, thereby consolidating Morocco’s position within the international framework for combating this phenomenon.

In line with the international normative framework, the Criminal Procedure Code redefines (Article 108) the concept of serious offenses and criminal dangerousness, providing a solid legal basis to classify human trafficking offenses among the highest-priority crimes in the Moroccan penal system.

This classification activates robust procedural rules granting significant powers to the judicial police, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and investigating judges, while strengthening international judicial cooperation through new and more effective tools, given the gravity of human trafficking, the Commission stressed.

This classification also enhances the jurisdiction of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) to investigate complex networks and transnational crimes, ensuring a more effective response to this multifaceted offense.

In this context, the new Criminal Procedure Code complements Law No. 27-14 on Combating Human Trafficking, promulgated on 25 August 2016, notably through the establishment of an integrated system to protect victims of human trafficking, witnesses, experts, and whistleblowers.

It also promotes the development of modern investigative techniques to keep pace with evolving organized crime methods, strengthens parallel financial investigations to dismantle criminal networks’ economic structures, and reinforces mechanisms for international judicial cooperation to address transnational aspects of these crimes.

According to the Commission, these new provisions represent a genuine qualitative advance in Morocco’s legal arsenal against human trafficking and reflect the Kingdom’s firm commitment to protecting human dignity and combating all forms of exploitation.

They also demonstrate Morocco’s legislative and judicial maturity in addressing contemporary security and human rights challenges, placing victim protection and the prosecution of offenders at the center of its priorities, the statement said.