The Regional Human Rights Commission of the Casablanca-Settat region is proceeding, today Monday, to the launch of an awareness campaign in order to prevent acts of violence that mainly characterise football matches.

A campaign for the prevention of violence during sporting events is launched today in the Casablanca-Settat region and will continue until April 8. "Let's mobilise against violence!" is the theme of this campaign organised at the initiative of the Regional Human Rights Commission (CRDH) of Casablanca-Settat and other partners. This initiative is intended to be a contribution to the efforts to prevent the scourge of violence during sporting events, in particular football matches, according to an approach favouring education in the principles of citizenship and human rights and civic behaviour, which constitutes, according to the organisers, an efficient methodology for the prevention of the culture of violence in general and that linked to sporting events in particular.

This campaign also aims to prevent the phenomenon of children in conflict with the law, which is worsening considerably through hooliganism, due to the involvement of a significant number of minors in this type of violence, without realising the serious social and legal consequences of their acts. This initiative is part of the CRDH's strategy for the promotion of human rights and education for citizenship, as a preventive mechanism against the culture of violence in the public space, as well as in the implementation of the partnership agreement between the CRDH and the Regional Academies of Education and Training of Casablanca-Settat.

The campaign mainly targets students in schools located in neighbourhoods known for the public's enthusiasm for football, in order to make them aware of the noble values of sport, which has been enshrined by the Constitution in the chapter on freedoms and rights, through training and awareness workshops. These workshops will benefit more than 300 students, belonging to about forty qualifying secondary education establishments in the Casablanca-Settat region. The workshops will focus on the "Role of education for citizenship and human rights in the prevention of violence during sporting events" and "Violence during sporting events: legal framework and effort of the General Directorate of National Security in terms of prevention". The workshops will be supervised by members of the CRDH and the Moroccan Centre for Youth and Democratic Transitions (CMJTD) and executives of the General Directorate of National Security, in the presence of players from the Raja and Wydad clubs of Casablanca and the Difaa of El Jadida. Through this campaign, the CRDH and its partners aim to develop a platform for an expanded meeting, which will bring together, at the end of April, the various actors concerned at the regional level, with the objective of developing, according to a participatory approach, a common action plan for the prevention of violence during sporting events. Furthermore, the campaign is initiated in partnership with the CMJTD, the Provincial Directorates of National Education of Anfa, Sidi Bernoussi, El Fida-Mers Sultan and El Jadida, the police prefecture of Casablanca and the Raja and Wydad clubs of Casablanca and the Difaa of El-Jadida, as well as the Provincial Directorates of Youth and Sports of Anfa and El Fida-Mers Sultan.