Remuneration for breastfeeding a child is an obligation incumbent upon the person responsible for its maintenance.
Family Code (Moudawana)
Unofficial translation. The English interface is for information only — only the Arabic text published in the Bulletin Officiel is authentic. Read this page in العربية · Français
The provisions relating to family abandonment are applicable to any person upon whom the maintenance of children is incumbent and who ceases to provide it, without valid grounds, for a period of one month at most. SECTION II: - OF THE MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE DUE TO PARENTS
In the case of multiple children, the maintenance allowance due to the parents is divided among their children according to their resources and not according to the proportion of their inheritance share.
Arrears of the maintenance allowance due to parents are ordered by the court from the date of the introduction of the legal claim. CHAPTER IV: OF THE MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE DUE TO THIRD PARTIES FOLLOWING AN UNDERTAKING
Any person who has bound himself towards a third party, minor or of full age, to pay him a maintenance allowance for a determined duration must perform his undertaking. If the duration is indeterminate, the court shall fix it on the basis of usage. - 68 - BOOK IV: OF CAPACITY AND LEGAL REPRESENTATION TITLE ONE: OF CAPACITY, OF THE GROUNDS FOR INTERDICTION AND OF THE ACTS OF THE INTERDICTED PERSON CHAPTER ONE: OF CAPACITY
There are two kinds of capacity: capacity of enjoyment and capacity of exercise.
Capacity of enjoyment is the faculty that a person has to acquire rights and assume duties as fixed by law. This capacity is attached to the person throughout his life and cannot be taken away from him.
Capacity of exercise is the faculty that a person has to exercise his personal and patrimonial rights and which renders his acts valid. The law fixes the conditions for acquiring capacity of exercise and the grounds determining the limitation of this capacity or its loss.
The age of legal majority is fixed at eighteen completed Gregorian years.
Any person who has reached the age of majority enjoys full capacity to exercise his rights and assume his obligations, unless some established ground limits this capacity or causes him to lose it.
Incapable persons and persons not fully capable are subject, as the case may be, to the rules of paternal, maternal, testamentary or dative guardianship, under the conditions and in accordance with the rules provided for in this Code. - 69 - CHAPTER II: OF THE GROUNDS FOR INTERDICTION AND THE PROCEDURES FOR ESTABLISHING IT SECTION I: - OF THE GROUNDS FOR INTERDICTION
The grounds for interdiction are of two kinds: the first entails the limitation of capacity, the second causes its loss.
Capacity of exercise is limited in the following cases: 1) the child who, having reached the age of discernment, has not reached the age of majority; 2) the prodigal; 3) the weak-minded person.
A child is endowed with discernment when he reaches the age of 12 completed Gregorian years.
The prodigal is one who squanders his property through expenditure without utility or considered futile by reasonable persons, in a manner that causes prejudice to himself or to his family.
The weak-minded person is one who is affected by a mental disability preventing him from controlling his thought and his acts.
The following do not enjoy capacity of exercise: 1) the child who has not reached the age of discernment; 2) the insane person and the person who has lost his reason. A person who loses his reason intermittently has full capacity during his moments of lucidity. - 70 - Voluntary loss of reason does not release from responsibility.
Interdiction ends for the minor when he reaches the age of majority, unless he is subject to it for any other ground. A person interdicted for mental disability or for prodigality has the right to ask the court to lift the interdiction when he considers himself to be of sound mind. This right is also open to his legal representa…
If the legal representative notices that the minor, before the age of majority, is affected by a mental disability or is prodigal, he shall refer the matter to the court, which shall rule on the possibility of maintaining the interdiction. The court bases its decision on all legal means of proof. SECTION II: - OF THE PROCEDURES FOR ESTABLISHING AND LIFTING INTERDICTION
The person who has lost his reason, the prodigal and the weak-minded person are subject to interdiction by judgment of the court, from the moment it is established that they have been in that state. Interdiction is lifted, in accordance with the rules provided for in this Code, from the date on which the grounds that justified it have ceased to exist. - 71 -
The judgment ordering or lifting interdiction is pronounced at the request of the person concerned, the Public Prosecution or any person having an interest therein.
The court relies, in order to order or lift interdiction, on a medical expert appraisal and on all legal means of proof.
The judgment ordering or lifting interdiction is published by the means that the court deems appropriate. CHAPTER III: OF THE ACTS OF THE INTERDICTED PERSON SECTION I: - OF THE ACTS OF THE INCAPABLE PERSON
The acts passed by the incapable person are null and void.
The acts of the minor endowed with discernment are subject to the following provisions: 1) they are valid if they are fully beneficial to him; 2) they are null if they are prejudicial to him; 3) if they are both beneficial and prejudicial, their validity is subject to the approval of his legal representative, granted taking into…
The minor with discernment may take possession of part of his property in order to ensure its management, on a trial basis. Authorization is granted for this purpose by the legal guardian or by decision of the guardianship judge, upon request of the testamentary or dative guardian or of the minor concerned. The guardianship judg…
The legal guardian may withdraw the authorization he has granted to the minor with discernment if there are grounds justifying such withdrawal.
The acts of the spendthrift and the weak-minded person are subject to the provisions of Article 225 above. TITLE II: LEGAL REPRESENTATION CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL PROVISIONS
The legal representation of the minor is ensured by way of legal guardianship, testamentary guardianship or dative guardianship.
For the purposes of this Book, legal representative means: 1) the legal guardian: the father, the mother or the judge; 2) the testamentary guardian designated by the father or by the mother; 3) the dative guardian designated by the courts. - 73 -
Legal representation is ensured by: - the father who is of age; - the mother who is of age, in the absence of the father or following the loss of the latter's capacity; - the testamentary guardian designated by the father; - the testamentary guardian designated by the mother; - the judge; - the dative guardian designated by the judge.
Where a minor is placed under the effective protection of a person or an institution, that person or institution is considered his legal representative with respect to his personal affairs, pending the judge's designation of a dative guardian for him.
The legal representative exercises his guardianship over the person and property of the minor until the latter reaches the age of legal majority. He also exercises it over the person who has lost his reason, until the lifting of his interdiction by a judgment. Legal representation exercised over the spendthrift and the weak-minded person is limited to their property, until the lifting of the interdiction by judgment.
The court may designate a dative guardian and entrust him with assisting the testamentary guardian or with ensuring autonomous management of certain financial interests of the minor. CHAPTER II: POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE LEGAL REPRESENTATIVE
The legal representative shall watch over the personal affairs of the interdicted person, ensuring his religious guidance and training and preparing him - 74 - to assume responsibility for himself in life. He shall also be responsible for the ordinary management of his property. The legal representative must inform the guardians…
The father is by law the legal guardian of his children, as long as he has not been deprived of such guardianship by a judgment. In the event of an impediment of the father, it is for the mother to watch over the urgent interests of the children.
The father may designate a testamentary guardian for his interdicted or unborn child, and may revoke such designation. Upon the death of the father, the instrument of testamentary guardianship shall be submitted to the judge for the purpose of verifying its validity and confirming it. II. The mother
The mother may exercise guardianship over her children provided that: 1) she is of age; 2) the father, as a result of death, absence, loss of capacity or for any other reason, is unable to assume guardianship. The mother may designate a testamentary guardian for her interdicted child, just as she may revoke such designation. Upo…
The mother and any donor may stipulate, on the occasion of a gift made to an interdicted person, the condition of exercising the functions of legal representative, for the purpose of managing and making productive the property that is the subject of the gift. This condition shall be binding on the parties concerned. III. Provisions common to guardianship of the father and of the mother
In his management of the property of the interdicted person, the legal guardian shall be subject to prior judicial control and to the opening of a legal representation file only if the value of the interdicted person's property exceeds two hundred thousand dirhams (200.000 DH). The guardianship judge may lower this threshold and…
Where, in the course of management, the value of the interdicted person's property exceeds two hundred thousand dirhams (200.000 DH), the legal guardian must inform the judge thereof for the purpose of opening a legal representation file. The interdicted person or his mother may also inform the judge thereof.
At the end of his mission and where a legal representation file exists, the legal guardian must notify the guardianship judge of the situation and the fate of the interdicted person's property in a detailed report, for approval.
In all cases where a legal representation file is opened, the legal guardian shall submit to the guardianship judge an annual report on his management of the interdicted person's property, on its productivity and on the diligence he applies to the guidance and training of the interdicted person. - 76 - The court may, after prese…
In the absence of the mother or the testamentary guardian, the court shall designate a datif guardian for the interdicted person, whom it must choose from among the most suitable of the closest relatives (âsaba). Failing that, the datif guardian must be chosen from among the other closest relatives, otherwise from among third pa…
The court shall immediately transmit the file to the public prosecutor's office for opinion, within a period not exceeding fifteen days. The court shall rule on the matter within a maximum period of fifteen days running from the date of receipt of the opinion of the public prosecutor's office.
The testamentary guardian and the datif guardian must enjoy full capacity, be diligent, resolute and honest. The condition of their solvency is left to the discretion of the court.
Testamentary or datif guardianship may not be entrusted: 1) to the person convicted of theft, breach of trust, forgery or any offence affecting morality; - 77 - 2) to the bankrupt and to the person ordered to judicial liquidation; 3) to the person who has, with the interdicted person, a dispute submitted to justice or a family dispute likely to affect the interests of the interdicted person.
The court may designate a substitute guardian, whose mission consists in supervising the acts of the testamentary or datif guardian and in advising the latter in the interest of the interdicted person. He must also inform the court when he notes negligence in the guardian's management or if he fears a dilapidation of the property of the interdicted person.
If the property of the interdicted person has not been the subject of an inventory, the testamentary or datif guardian must carry it out and attach thereto, in all cases, the following: 1) the possible observations of the testamentary or datif guardian concerning the said inventory; 2) the proposal of the annual amount of the ma…
The inventory and its annexes are kept in the file of the legal representation and recorded in the register of monthly or daily acts, as the case may be. - 78 - The content and form of the said register are fixed by order of the Minister of Justice.