Introduction

The world is facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis as a result of COVID-19. At its core is a global public health emergency on a scale not seen for a century, requiring a global response with far-reaching consequences for our economic, social and political lives. The priority is to save lives. In view of the exceptional situation and to preserve life, countries have no choice but to adopt extraordinary measures. Extensive lockdowns, adopted to slow transmission of the virus restrict by necessity freedom of movement and, in the process, freedom to enjoy many other human rights. Such measures can inadvertently affect people’s livelihoods and security, their access to health care (not only for COVID-19), to food, water and sanitation, work, education – as well as to leisure. Measures need to be taken to mitigate any such unintended consequences. (1)

The COVID-19 crisis is a brutal reminder of the importance of ensuring lasting progress with respect to social rights enjoyment, particularly through the development of universal public health services. The pandemic shows in practical terms the indivisibility of human rights. The spread of the pandemic and the handling of the consequent new systems implemented in what seems to curb the spread of the pandemic have shed a question mark on the balance between protection of lives and the respect of human rights. UN Secretary General António Guterres was among the first to raise the alarm about possible human rights implications of government measures to fight COVID-19.(2) As many as 87 states worldwide have declared a state of emergency to curb the spread of the virus,[3] which could  imply a spread of certain derogations from international human rights conventions and violations that could go undetected.

In the North Africa and the Mediterranean region, the same measures and policies have been deployed since the spread of the virus. The European countries have faced the most unprecedented health crisis in the modern time. The coronavirus pandemic is questioning the EU capabilities to curb the crisis. The Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio urges EU unity against the coronavirus threat, defends his government's response to the epidemic despite a record death toll, and talks about missing being able to hug people. He declared that Europe must give an "unequivocal, strong and adequate" response to the coronavirus pandemic, or its future will be at risk (4).

In the North Africa, the governments have adopted emergency laws to put limitations to some human rights in order to protect lives, however many calls are rising to show a strong criticism toward authoritarian regimes that seize the opportunity to calm down the social malaise by banning all kind of social demonstrations. In this paper we aim to examine the human rights conditions during the coronavirus crisis in Morocco and Turkey, mentioning some similarities and differences between the two Mediterranean countries in dealing with coronavirus pandemic and their responses toward the respect of human rights during the lockdown.

Morocco Human Rights: The Trojan Horse

Despite being a self-styled constitutional monarchy, King Mohammed VI exercises direct or indirect control over all aspects of Morocco’s government. The Moroccan monarch has proven himself to be a resilient leader who has at times promised democratic reforms. He describes his style of leadership as “change in continuity.” (5)

Intissar Fakir, a fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted in a recent roundtable discussion organized by the Elcano Royal Institute, a Spanish think tank that the Morocco`s Monarch strong grip on power has allowed Morocco to take swift, even drastic measures without having to go through the institutional gymnastics and partisan squabbles that sometimes characterize democratic systems. Particularly in the case of the pandemic, his hands-on involvement has contrasted with the royal palace’s preferred public image. Generally, the court stays away “from the day-to-day management, even as it is clear to everyone in the country that the monarchy is in charge of all aspects of policy in the country.” (6)

Action began with early border closures. Authorities shut down air and sea links with Spain and France on March 13. That same day, schools, cafes, restaurants, bars, cinemas, sports facilities and other public spaces were closed. The Supreme Council of Ulemas, Morocco’s highest religious institution, which is controlled by the state, issued a fatwa, or religious edict to close all mosques. The government announced the suspension of all international flights to and out of Morocco. Rabat declared a “health state of emergency” that went into effect on March 20 and included a nationwide lockdown, along with a nightly curfew enforced by police and armored vehicles. Movement between cities was also banned.

The border closure went much further than most other countries, as it blocked Morocco’s own citizens from returning home. The 100 migrants who made the desperate journey from Spain in April were just a drop in the bucket compared to the 38,000 Moroccans who have been stranded abroad, mostly in Europe. Most countries have worked to bring back their own citizens by chartering flights, leading many Moroccans who were abroad when the borders closed to feel abandoned by their country. (7)

As mentioned in the World report 2021, Morocco cracked down harder on social media commentators, artists, and journalists critical of the monarchy. Despite a press code devoid of prison sentences as punishment, authorities continue to resort to penal code articles to imprison critics. Before protests and public meetings were prohibited to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, authorities had already banned several public meetings of opposition groups and continued to impede the activities of some human rights groups. Laws restricting individual freedoms remained in effect. (8)

Since Morocco’s Hirak or protest movement erupted in late 2016, the Moroccan Association for Protection of Human Rights, known by its French acronyms AMDH has documented more than 1,000 cases of political detention throughout the country. (9) The detainees include protesters, human rights activists, trade unionists, and university students. The AMDH central bureau says hundreds have received a royal pardon, while many others have completed their sentences, leaving about one hundred currently jailed for political motives. (10)

The International law guarantees everyone the right to the highest attainable standard of health. However, restrictions on some rights can be justified when they have a legal basis, based on scientific evidence and neither arbitrary nor discriminatory in application, of limited duration, respectful of human dignity, subject to review, and proportionate to achieve the objective. (11) According to Morocco’s official narrative, the Coronavirus containment measures outlined in the decrees seem to be fully in compliance with the limitations imposed by the international law on exercising those fundamental rights.

They have been adopted by law, with the legitimate aim of protecting public health from a pandemic and are both necessary and proportionate. Moroccan officials have explained that the measures, which limit social contacts, are not only adequate but have proven to be the only effective measures to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Moreover, the measures imposed by the Moroccan government are strictly limited (materially and in time) to the exigencies of the situation. (12) According to local journalists, lockdowns have made it impossible for them and for civil society activists to conduct on-the-ground research and investigations.

The United Nations Human Rights Office voiced concern about more than a dozen countries that have declared states of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic where police have arrested or detained hundreds of thousands of people and killed others. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has listed Morocco, among 15 countries, as a violator of human rights during the pandemic time. Bachelet also highlighted police and other security forces in those countries “are using excessive and sometimes deadly force to enforce lockdowns and curfews."(13)

Authorities continued to impede the work of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), the country’s largest human rights group. The AMDH said that, as of September 2020, 79 of its 99 local branches faced a situation where authorities had declined to process their administrative formalities, impeding their ability to carry out functions like opening new bank accounts or renting space.

According to the AMDH, authorities banned at least 20 public meetings, public protests and other public events called for by opposition groups or parties across the country, in January and February. The authorities banned public protests as part of a package of measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Inside the coalition government, the Moroccan measures have also ignited some criticism. Islamist Minister for Human Rights Mustafa Ramid has argued corruption in Morocco is no less dangerous than Coronavirus in threatening the country’s security and stability. He stated: “If spread in a society, corrupts its political institutions, spoils its economic climate, and affects the principle of the rule of law and the achievement of justice… It is impossible to imagine a democracy with corruption. There are elected people circumventing and receiving bribes without leaving any traces. They may enter with zero dirhams and come out with a billion dirhams because of the absence of a legal framework for illicit enrichment. Fighting corruption cannot be achieved by establishing institutions, but rather by reviewing all legislations and ridding them of rent and discrimination between citizens.” (14)

With the extension of the lockdown measures, Moroccans are increasingly worrisome about the economic implications of the pandemic. There is widespread feeling of uncertainty about the impact of the pandemic of the economic ramifications. (15) The Moroccan government sent a letter to the European Union on March 26 predicting significant losses in tourism, automobile, and textile industries in 2020. It highlighted how the EU accounts for more than 58 percent of Moroccan exports, 59 percent of foreign direct investments (FDI), and 70 percent of Morocco’s tourism industry. While Morocco has not yet experienced the full effects of the virus on its economy, the expected decrease from European markets will soon be felt domestically.(16)

Morocco: Protecting lives and Wining hearts

Morocco's initial success was due to its government proactive actions to contain the outbreak as early as March, most notably by suspending air and maritime travel and implementing a strict general lockdown. The lockdown and social distancing measures worked in the initial phase but have not been respected across all cities and neighborhoods since. In May, domestic actors lamented what many perceived as an unofficial partial lockdown (respected by some but not all citizens. (17)

In the first two weeks of the confinement, human rights activists spoke out against incidents of violence employed by security officers vis-à-vis people defying lockdown rules, fearing that a rise in authoritarianism was underway. (18) This may have prompted authorities to reign in officers and may explain the laxer approach in implementing lockdown rules subsequently. Overall, nine months after the outbreak hit the kingdom, the situation is drastically worse than what would have been expected in the first few months of the outbreak. Morocco's outlook in the March-April 2020 period was positive as the government seemed in control of the situation. By November 2020, the numbers of new cases and deaths had reached an all-time high which points to the situation getting out of hand. In terms of the organizational response of the Moroccan government, the decision-making process remains opaque. Experts agree that the king, the makhzen (i.e., the deep state), and the Ministry of Interior are spearheading the response, while the prime minister is more of a figurehead. (19) There seems to be lack of communication between key decision-makers in the palace and the government headed by the prime minister.

Early in the course of the pandemic, Moroccan authorities were able to implement fairly rigorous confinement orders with little or no resistance from the population. There were no large-scale protests documented in Morocco during initial stages of the pandemic. In early August, however, health care workers affiliated with the Union Marcaine du Travail (UMT) staged national protests demanding better wages and working conditions while protesting the government’s decision to cancel their annual leave. (20) Overworked medical professionals protested again in September, a month that also saw protests by staff of the national carrier, Royal Air Maroc, following significant layoffs. By and large, protests have focused on the economic frustrations of workers rather than anger over pandemic closures or political decisions by the government.

The Moroccan authorities’ pursuit of winning the hearts and the minds of their local citizens appears to be effective so far. The Coronavirus pandemic provides an avenue through which the state is not only able to control and diffuse existing political tensions; but the powerful tide of nationalism, in times of insecurity, yields the ability to reinstate a renewed and shared understanding of the nation. Yet this approach might be short-lived considering the weak healthcare infrastructure systems and the public’s low levels of trust in political institutions. Whether we see uprisings or a tighter union between the state and people remains highly contingent upon the levels of repression deployed and, more importantly, the state’s ability to absorb the crisis. (21)

Turkey: Autocratic Regime on its way

In the first phase of the crisis, Turkey had a higher number of confirmed COVID-19 cases than China, Italy or Spain reported at the same stage of their outbreaks. (22) However, Turkey has performed strikingly better in limiting the effect of COVID-19 pandemic than most of the countries in the world. Indeed, Turkey has reported 156,827 COVID-19 cases and 4461 deaths, with over 1,650,135 tests completed, and ranked 9th in total cases per one million and ranked 60th in total tests per 1 million people in the world. (23)

It is interesting to note that Turkey performs strikingly better than most of the developed countries in Europe with a fatality rate of 2.8%, recovery rate of 77.3%, and critical cases treated under Intensive Care Units (ICU) is just 0.4% of all cases (24). How has Turkey, as one of the world’s fastest-growing outbreaks which could soon become like Italy, or worse (25), clearly averted a much bigger disaster and fits in the category of several countries that responded fairly quickly with testing, tracing, isolation and movement restrictions … that have been quite effective in reducing the viral spread?  (26)

The Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey has enabled the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to deepen his autocratic rule by silencing critics and rapidly passing restrictive new laws to limit dissent, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2021.

In terms of rights and freedoms, the fundamental problem in Turkey is the erosion of the rule of law, which has reached unparalleled levels especially since the attempted coup d’état on 15 July 2016. Since then, the human rights situation has sharply deteriorated, and human rights abuses have been seen in a wide range of sectors not previously affected. Human rights defenders in Turkey undergo various forms of reprisals, discrimination, harassment and attacks. However, it is not possible to argue that the COVID-19 pandemic particularly worsened the situation in terms of rule of law.

Turkey did not introduce a state of emergency due to COVID-19, but the main problem regarding the measures adopted in relation to the pandemic is the process of decision making. (27)

It can be said that the measures (curfews, bans on travel between cities, closure of certain business) are within acceptable limits.

A body, called the “science council”, which is composed of healthcare professionals and academics, suggests the necessary measures to the government and then the government adopts the measures. However certain groups, such as the Turkish Medical Union, are not included in the science council, probably because of their dissident political position. This creates a problem in terms of transparency, pluralism and accountability (28).

Another issue regarding the measures is how they are introduced. Some of the measures, such as curfews and travel bans, bring very serious restrictions regarding fundamental rights and freedoms. But they are introduced as presidential decrees or government communiques, not as laws after parliamentary discussions.

In fact, the pandemic has added new dimensions to the day-to-day difficulties already experienced by journalists and members of the public who express their right to free speech online. It was already dangerous to speak out on social media in Turkey due to these “pre-existing conditions.” Even high-school students were not spared detention after posting critical views of Turkey’s government on social media (29).

Turkey remains “Not Free” in Freedom House’s 2020 Freedom in the World index (30) in large part due to the level of retribution against exercising one’s right to free expression. Many of those safeguards for rights protections in Turkey had been stripped away before COVID-19 took hold. In 2016, following a failed military coup attempt, over 150 media outlets were shuttered, and thousands of journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens were jailed under allegations of participation in terrorist activities (30).

However, this shift comes with significant public concerns about, and anxiety around, censorship, surveillance and untrustworthy information. Sixty-nine per cent of respondents expressed concern about the effects of censorship in Turkey, and 64 per cent revealed that they were worried about the government monitoring their online activities. Thirty-five per cent of those who expressed concerned about these issues were specifically troubled by the government’s concealment of rights abuses (31).

Turkey`s Tentative to restore public Trust

Turkey’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic could have been an opportunity to reduce polarization and restore public trust in the government. The recent reforms and public investments in healthcare shows that - while Turkey did an excellent job in flattening the curve of infections, gaining praise from the World Health Organization (WHO) for its “vigilant, cautious” measures - Turkey has further restricted fundamental rights and used purposefully polarizing political maneuvers to further divide society. Instead of unity, public trust and open debate, the result is division, restriction, and censorship (32).

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread around the world at a time when the Mediterranean and the African regions are under great pressures of various kinds. The responses of both Morocco and Turkey to the threat of the new coronavirus, added to the international context that the pandemic is generating, have the potential to aggravate some of the existing problems. The current global emergency could turn socio-economic challenges into political crises and intensify the demands for change that are spreading through various countries in the Middle East and the Maghreb. Until an effective vaccine against the pandemic is made available, the economic and social cost of the drastic restrictions being imposed by Morocco`s and Turkey`s governments may be overwhelming and, ultimately, unbearable.

In fact, all the scholars cannot generate the same view about the complexity of the question of human rights during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The international human rights reports have listed Morocco, among other countries, as a violator of human rights during the pandemic. However, Morocco’s strategy of containing the spread of coronavirus was praised by certain European political figures and media outlets. In the same context, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted the success of Morocco`s vaccination campaign, congratulating the Kingdom for the progress made in this field.  The same appreciation has been given to the Turkish`s experience in dealing with the pandemic, as WHO has praised the measures taken by Ankara to face the pandemic with respect to human rights. (33)

Finally, it’s necessary to mention that this pandemic is affecting human life across borders, nationalities, age and color; the impact has been greatly proportional in many ways to how prompt local decision-making in handling the pandemic and enforcing policies are put in place. For Morocco and Turkey, the coming weeks and months are crucial as security governance tackles the multi-layered challenges of COVID-19. The outbreak will inevitably be defeated. Today, this pandemic offers an opportunity for serious and new thinking about the political priorities, to review the economic development reforms within national institutions, and to reconstruct a new social inquiry that enhances coordination between local business, national enterprises and upgrades Morocco’s economic-political structure among its community with respect of human rights. (34)

References

1) Human rights are critical – for the response and the recovery, COVID-19 and Human Rights, We are all in this together, UN Report, APRIL 2020. https://www.un.org/victimsofterrorism/sites/www.un.org.victimsofterrorism/files/un_-_human_rights_and_covid_april_2020.pdf

2) Michele Collazzo and Alexandra Tyan:  Emergency Powers, COVID-19 and the New Challenge for Human Rights, Emergency Powers, COVID-19 and the New Challenge for Human Rights | IAI Istituto Affari Internazionali

3) Ibid 

4) Di Maio: “Pandemic puts Europe’s collective future at risk” (Dpa International) https://www.esteri.it/mae/en/sala_stampa/interviste/2020/04/italy-s-di-maio-pandemic-puts-europe-s-collective-future-at-risk-dpa-international.html

5) Aziz Chahir, Morocco: Ten reasons why Mohammed VI’s reign has lasted 20 years. Morocco: Ten reasons why Mohammed VI’s reign has lasted 20 years | Middle East Eye

6) Alana Moceri, Morocco Is a COVID-19 Success Story. But at What Cost? https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/28840/in-morocco-human-rights-deteriorate-amid-a-strict-covid-19-response

7) Antonio Navarro Amuedo, The hardest part was when my son asked me, ‘Dad, why won’t Morocco let us come back?’ April 30 2020. “The hardest part was when my son asked me, ‘Dad, why won’t Morocco let us come back?’” | Atalayar – Las claves del mundo en tus manos

8) Civil and Political Rghts | Human rights and fundamental freedoms | State of emergency, UN Commission on Human Rights, Refworld,  https://www.refworld.org/docid/4672bc122.html

9) Ilhem Rachidi, Morocco’s Crackdown Won’t Silence Dissent, Foreign policy Magazine January 16, 2019  https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/16/moroccos-crackdown-wont-silence-di…

10) Safaa Kasraoui, Thousands of Moroccans Sign Petition Against Bill on Social Network Use, Morocco world news, 28 April 2020.  https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/04/300943/thousands-of-moroccans-…

11) |Mohamed Chtatou, Coronavirus in Morocco: Economic and Social Implications, Fikra Forum, Washington Institute, April 23, 2020. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/fikraforum/view/Coronavirus-Morocco….

12)  Abdessalam Jaldi, Coronavirus: Does the State of Health Emergency in Morocco Comply with International Human Rights Law?  April 15, 2020, Policy Center for The New South.

 https://www.policycenter.ma/opinion/coronavirus-does-state-health-emerg….

13) U.N. raises alarm about police brutality in lockdowns, www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/world/un-raises-alarm-about-police-bruta…;

14) Draft law would violate right to freedom of expression in Morocco, Euro-Med Monitor and Impact International: https://euromedmonitor.org/uploads/reports/moroccoen.pdf

15) Ibid

16) Mohamed Darouiche, “Coronavirus: Le difficile confinement des quartiers populaires de Rabat” [Coronavirus: The difficult containment of working-class neighborhoods in Rabat], Hespress, May 13, 2020, https://fr.hespress.com/144866-coronavirus-le-difficile-confinement-des-quartiers-populaires-de-rabat.html; Africa Radio, “Au Maroc, un confinement difficile dans les quartiers pauvres et surpeuplés” [In Morocco, difficult confinement in poor and overcrowded neighborhoods], April 1, 2020, www.africaradio.com/news/au-maroc-unconfinement-difficile-dans-les-quartiers-pauvres-et-surpeuples-166080.

17) Khadija Khettou, “Coronavirus/Maroc: Pourquoi certains ont du mal à respecter le confinement ?” [Coronavirus/Morocco : Why some in dit difficult to respect containment], Hespress, May 18, 2020, https ://fr.hespress.com/137829-coronavirus-maroc-pourquoi-certains-ont-du-mal-a-respecter-le-confinement.html; Finances News, “Pourquoi le confinement devrait se prolonger au-delà du 20 mai” [Why the confinement should extend beyond May 20], May 14, 2020, https ://fnh.ma/article/actualite-economique/pourquoi-le-confinement-devraitse-prolonger-au-dela-du-20-mai; and Fahd Iraqi, “Maroc : un déconfinement qui ne dit pas son nom” [Morocco : a deconfinement that does not speak its name], May 31, 2020, www.jeuneafrique.com/991104/societe/maroc-undeconfinement-qui-ne-dit-pas-son-nom.

18) “L’ONU critique la brutalité policière au Maroc” [The UN criticizes police brutality in Morocco], Bladi.net, April 29, 2020, www.bladi.net/maroc-brutalite-policiere,68150.html; Mohamed Chaoui, “Le traitement du Covid-19 rattrapé par les droits de l’homme” [The treatment of Covid-19 caught up with by human rights], L’Economiste, June 12, 2020, www.leconomiste.com/article/1063229-le-traitement-du-covid-19-rattrape-par-les-droits-de-l-homme.

19) Hicham Mansouri, “Maroc. Le roi, le coronavirus et ‘la volonté divine’” [Morocco. The king, the coronavirus and ‘divine will’], Orient XXI, April 2, 2020, https://orientxxi.info/magazine/maroc-le-roi-le-coronavirus-et-la-volontedivine,3766.

20) “Morocco: Nationwide protests scheduled for August 4,” GardaWorld, August 4, 2020, https://www.garda.com/crisis24/news-alerts/365941/morocco-nationwide-protests-scheduled-for-august-4

21) Mohammed Issam Laaroussi, How Arab States Take on Coronavirus: Morocco as a Case Study, https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/how-arab-states-take-coronavirus-morocco-case-study

22) Financial Times, 31 March 2020.

23) (Worldometer, 30 May 2020). https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-toll/?fbclid=IwAR3ct-OjVs6SY1ZqHGMP53akUSGsP8Nkv-p7xJ32BrqA0sMXo3IvBzu6I3E

24) Coronatracker, 30 May 2020

25) Candar, 26 March 2020.

26) British academic in Virology cited in BBC, 29 May 2020).

27) Impact of Covid-19 Measures on Human Rights and Criminal Justice in Western Balkans and Turkey EUROPE, NEWS 26 May 2020. https://crd.org/2020/05/26/impact-of-covid-19-measures-on-human-rights-and-criminal-justice-in-western-balkans-and-turkey/

28) Medical Experts Call on Health Ministry to be 'More Transparent' on Covid-19 Pandemic. İstanbul - BIA News Desk 20 March 2020. https://bianet.org/english/health/221717-medical-experts-call-on-health-ministry-to-be-more-transparent-on-covid-19-pandemic

29) Gina. S Lentine and Didem Tali, Turkey is Using Pandemic to Tighten Chokehold on Free Expression. https://freedomhouse.org/article/turkey-using-pandemic-tighten-chokehold-free-expression

30) Freedom house report Turkey: Freedom in the World 2020 Country Report | Freedom House

31) Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) | Elcano Royal Institute (realinstitutoelcano.org)

 32) Haizam Amirah-Fernández, Coronavirus in Arab countries: passing storm, opportunity for change or regional catastrophe? 6/4/2020 http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/ari37-2020-coronavirus-in-arab-countries-passing-storm-opportunity-for-change-or-regional-catastrophe

33) Success of Vaccination Campaign: A Proof of Morocco's Ability to Meet Challenges (Head of Govt.), 04 March 2021 https://www.mapnews.ma/en/actualites/politics/success-vaccination-campaign-proof-moroccos-ability-meet-challenges-head-govt

34) Yasmine Zarhloule, Framing Nationalism in times of a pandemic: The Case of Morocco, in the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa April 2020, pomeps studies, https://pomeps.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/POMEPS_Studies_39_Web.pdf…;