Clarifications Concerning the Exploratory Mission on Moroccan Children in Iraq and Syria
A website published an article about an alleged delay in forming the exploratory mission on Moroccan children in Iraq and Syria. Hence, we felt the necessity to present the following clarifications to inform the public opinion:
1- The Board of the House previously studied the subject in its meeting on January 14th, 2020, where it decided to “reject the request given the legal and operational obstacles that hinder it while commending the humanitarian reasons for the initiative. As a result, the Board proposed scheduling the matter for review in the meeting of the Foreign Affairs, National Defense, Islamic Affairs, and Moroccan Expatriates Committee.”
2- The Board of the House studied the subject again in its meeting of July 21st, 2020. After reviewing all its legal and procedural aspects and recalling its previous decision on the matter, the Board decided to pursue the study of the subject and take the adequate decision after studying all the related information and consulting the concerned ministries.
3- It should be noted that Article 107 of the Rules of Procedure of the House stipulates that exploratory missions are performed based on a request of a chairperson of a standing committee after the approval of the committee's bureau, or at the request of the chairperson of a parliamentary group or caucus or one-third of the members of the said standing committee, in agreement with the Board of the House of Representatives. The Rules of Procedure do not include any provision allowing the submission of such request by a deputy. Therefore, the procedure of submitting, reviewing, and deciding on such a request is a competence of the House's bodies and requires interaction with the chairmanship of the concerned committee to deposit the request.
4- Following the Rules of Procedure of the House, reviewing and deciding on the request of performing an interim exploratory mission after its deposit by the chairperson of the concerned committee with the speakership of the House is a competence of the Board of the House, and not of its Speaker.