Since the late 1980s, many women's advocacy organizations and local development associations have emerged to combat violence against women, gender-based legal and cultural discrimination, under-representation of women in government and the economic sector, and illiteracy. While the majority of Moroccan women's advocacy NGOs are concentrated in the urban centers of Rabat and Casablanca, NGOs, women's and development organizations have emerged in smaller cities and towns across the country since the late 1990's to address problems unique to women in their regions. The 2003 announcement of landmark reforms to the personal status code ("Mudawana") have come after years of advocacy for women's greater rights on matters covering marriage and divorce. Yet, despite improved legislation, procedural obstacles in legal proceedings in cases involving women's rights are often insurmountable.

Even as these and other legal protections exist, cultural norms, tradition, high illiteracy rates, and lack of knowledge of their legal rights may prevent women from invoking their rights or reporting crimes against them, such as rape, child abuse, sexual exploitation and domestic violence. And, on such cases lawyers do not often make legal arguments based on international human rights treaties, and judges often resist relying on international treaties on the pretext that the law enumerating the sources on which they may base their decisions does not include international law.