The representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Morocco, Speciose Hakizimana, praised on October 3 in Salé, Morocco’s solid child protection system, founded on coordination between legal and social components.
Intervening at the opening of the Second National Conference on the Role of Social Assistance in the Field of Justice under the theme “Institutionalization of Social Assistance in the Courts and Prospects for the Development of Services Provided to Children, Women, and Vulnerable Categories”, Hakizimana explained that the link between legal, judicial, and social protection components contributes to better prevention of risk situations, guarantees the humanization of judicial trajectories, and ensures the follow-up and integration of children.
The official also noted that this Conference, organized by the Ministry of Justice in partnership with UNICEF, is a milestone in the process of institutionalizing social assistance in the courts and strengthening access to justice for children, women, and specific categories in Morocco.
“This institutionalization will certainly contribute to the implementation of the measures set out in Morocco’s justice reform charter, by establishing a special status for social assistance professionals, defining their missions and the probative value of their reports, and providing jurisdictions for social assistance at the level of Family Justice sections and cells for care of women and children subjected to violence,” stressed Hakizimana.
The UNICEF official emphasized the importance of maintaining a high level of cooperation between the judicial system and social and child protection services to ensure the success of social assistance missions, as well as reinforcing the forms of support necessary for child safety, development and fulfillment within the framework of judicial procedures.
Hakizimana also called for a paradigm shift in social work specific to child protection, particularly towards an integrated and inclusive approach, advocating parallel implementation of the social work project and the integrated territorial child protection scheme.
The Second National Conference features presentations of international expertise in social protection, by speakers from Senegal, Great Britain, Spain, Bangladesh, Jordan, and the United States.
The Conference’s opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, the Kingdom’s Ombudsman, Mohamed Benalilou, and several national and international figures.