October 10, 2007 

In September 2007, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative and Morocco’s national judicial training institute (l’Institut Supérieur de la Magistrature—ISM) began pilot testing of Morocco’s first ever e-learning judicial curriculum on the recently amended Family Code and women’s rights. One of the primary motivating factors behind the enactment of the new Code was to promote greater equality between men and women in matters involving the family.  Consequently, the curriculum highlights underlying principles of gender equality as well as the changes in the Family Code in order to educate new and sitting judges and to assist them to more uniformly apply the law.

New judges were the first to pilot test the modules in Rabat.  They found the learning tool easy to use and well-developed substantively.  The second pilot testing took place at a judicial training center in Marrakech.  The field testing at both locations included judges with all levels of computer skills, and even those with limited computer experience found the e-learning curriculum to be easy to navigate.

Morocco and its judicial training institute are leading the region in introducing e-learning as a staple of judicial training and the benefits it offers to standardize judicial teaching and to reach greater numbers of judges through distance learning.  Over the next several months, Morocco will share its experience with other countries in the region, including Algeria, Bahrain and Jordan, where ABA ROLI will adapt and implement the judicial curriculum with funding from the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).