About ADFM

Association Démocratique de Femmes de Maroc (ADFM), founded in June 1985, has organized countless protests, submitted dozens of policy recommendations, led hundreds of workshops, and inspired and empowered thousands of grassroots women to take the lead on making social, economic, and political changes in their communities. Today, ADFM promotes women’s economic and social rights, works to reform laws and policies to support gender equality, fights to overturn sexist stereotypes, and assists individuals and organizations to increase their capacity to mobilize on behalf of women’s rights. ADFM’s goal is to strengthen women’s power and influence in the juridical, political, economic, and social spheres to build an egalitarian, democratic, and sustainable society.
 
ADFM was among the original WLP partners when WLP was founded in 2000, and it has contributed greatly to the WLP partnership by sharing its experience, expertise, data, and best practices. ADFM, in return, has benefited from WLP’s learning and leadership methodologies and curricula, international network, and online training workshops, as well as collaborations with the other organizations in the partnership. ADFM works primarily in Arabic and French. 

Organizational Programs and Activities

Soulaliyate Women

• Since 2007, ADFM has worked for the recognition of Soulaliyate women’s right to their collective lands. Soulaliyates is the name given to tribal women who have lived for generations on collective lands in Morocco. As the lands have been seized by the government and/or privatized, much of the compensation and other benefits have gone to men. Single, divorced, or widowed women are frequently left with no land, no income, and no prospects. ADFM’s advocacy campaign for recognition of Soulaliyates as persons entitled to land and land benefits has had numerous successes, including the issuance of three ministerial circulars providing for equality between women and men in terms of access to land; the launch by the government of a national dialogue regarding the reform of the legal status of collective lands; Soulaliyate women's participation in land management bodies and decision-making positions; and, in July 2018, for the first time in Morocco, the equal allocation of land and compensation for Soulaliyate women and men from the Kenitra Province.
• Today, the Soulaliyate women’s movement is a national movement that inspires and engages other civil rights campaigns in Morocco.

Family Law and the Penal Code reform

• ADFM is monitoring the implementation of Morocco’s Family Code (the Moudawana). In recent years, ADFM has identified priority actions to advocate for the reform of the family code in accordance with the provisions of the 2011 Constitution and the international commitments of Morocco. The family code has not been reformed for more than 13 years (2004) and still permits many forms of discrimination and violence against women, such as polygamy and the marriage of minors. 
• ADFM is engaged in ongoing advocacy for reforming the penal code to better protect women victims, and to radically overhaul the laws relating to gender-based violence.  

Capacity-building workshops and programs

• ADFM conducts capacity-building trainings for various constituencies throughout Morocco. These have included grassroots women, Soulaliyate women, local NGOs and youth organizations, university students, the media, and civil servants and government officials, among others. The subject matter varies depending on the participants, but covers a range of topics from leadership to techniques for monitoring the implementation of legislation. ADFM uses WLP’s curricula in trainings, which have helped ADFM consolidate its work with other institutions, organizations, and networks. 

Monitoring compliance and reporting on women’s rights 

• ADFM compiles shadow reports and lobbies the monitoring committees during periodic country reviews by CEDAW, Beijing +20, ICESCR, UPR and other international bodies. 
• ADFM participates in the regional Equality Without Reservation campaign, advocating for the removal of all reservations to the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ratification of the Convention’s Optional Protocol, and full implementation of the Convention by MENA governments, to fully realize women’s human rights and gender equality in the region.
• ADFM has been engaged in the EuroMed campaign to expand the number of country accessions to the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, a campaign launched on the occasion of the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign  in 2016.