Chairwoman Hautala met on 9th of February Ms. Nouzha Skalli, Moroccan Minister for Social Development, Family and Solidarity, to discuss the role of women in political life today and ways to promote gender equality.[:] Rights of women have improved in Morocco to outshine its neighbours in the region and even beyond.

Ms Skalli is a leading advocate for gender equality and in her work has focused on promotion of justice and rights of women. She has taken up issues of violence and discrimination against women and education of women in particular. Ms Hautala, as a longstanding promoter of rights of women, applauded Ms Skalli of her achievements on these fields and assured her of the full support of European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights in this regard.

Landscape with regards rights of women has improved dramatically during recent years, not only in Morocco but throughout the world, but there are still significant challenges to meet in places where positive development has taken root and bad developments to combat in places where negative trends continue. It was agreed that one of the most effective ways is to enforce quotas for women and apply affirmative action across the board.

However, it is now vitally important to replicate this success in the other fields of human rights in Morocco, Ms Hautala noted.

Minister Skalli is one of the founding members and one of the leaders of the National Association of Democratic Women of Morocco, founder of the National Committee for the Participation of Women in Political Life as well as the Listening Centre and National Observatory for Equality. She was also involved in drafting process of the Moroccan Family Code.