King mohammed pledges to consolidate local democracy, enlarge scope of freedoms, Amazigh Culture Institute
Morocco, Politics, 7/31/2001

Morocco's King Mohammed VI has pledged to consolidate local democracy and to promote regionalization, as a strategic, fundamental choice to materialize economic and social development.

"We grant the highest importance to the issue of the region and regionalization. This is for us a strategic choice, not a mere administrative system. We consider it a democratic undertaking that is fundamental to materialize economic and social development," said King Mohammed VI in a speech he delivered this Monday from Tangiers on the occasion of the Throne Day.

The sovereign explained that regionalization means the advent of a decentralized, community administration, managed by regional elite and promoting cultural specificities. Democracy does not only consist in securing equality in a state-nation, united and governed by the rule of the law, it also requires a cultural substratum, evidencing the respect of regional cultural characteristics, the sovereign said, underlining the plural character and variety of the Moroccan identity, which is impregnated by the Amazigh (berber), Arab, Sub-Saharan African and Andalusian cultures.

"Our identity managed to illustrate, in a concrete way, the unity, integration and intermixing that were operated in the frame of a united nation, that has no majority, nor minority, for its citizens are all united around unchangeable values," the sovereign said.

He stated further in this respect that the Amazigh culture is a component of national richness, announcing a project to set up a Royal Institute of the Amazigh Culture in a bid to preserve and promote this culture. The institute will promote the Amazigh culture and will participate, along with concerned ministerial departments, in conceiving and following up the process to integrate the teaching of Amazigh language in the Moroccan educational system.

The institute will also propose appropriate policies to consolidate the place of Amazigh in the national social, cultural and media space as well as in the local and regional affairs, King Mohammed VI said, adding the move falls in the frame of the new concept of authority meant to enable "the regions of the kingdom to run their own affairs, within local democracy and the unity of the nation."

"We will tirelessly carry on our action to enlarge the scope of freedom and guarantee the exercise of this freedom through the setting up or the renewal of the institutions in charge of this mission. as well as through the revision of the penal procedure code," King Mohammed VI said, mentioning among these institutions the Human Rights Advisory Council and the body entrusted with promoting intermediation between the administration and the citizen. This action is combined with a strong resolve to see to it that perfecting a modern democratic state, based on public freedoms and human rights leads to the edification of a strong state, able to impose the respect of the law by all, he said.

To consecrate the principle of the equality of all Moroccans before the law, the sovereign recalled that a draft organic law related to the Higher Court (provided for by the Constitution) has been elaborated.

The constitution stipulates that members of the government are legally responsible should they commit crimes and offences in the exercise of their duties and might be charged by the parliament and referred to the Higher Court. The court is made up by members from the two houses of the parliament and its president is appointed by Dahir (royal decree).

The sovereign also announced that a draft law on the procedure to lift parliamentary immunity has been drafted and that the reform of the justice is being speeded up.

Part of endeavors to promote human rights, King Mohammed VI urged the government and the parliament to speed up the adoption of the public freedoms code and to set up a special body that will see to a sound implementation of the law and of the code of ethics in information and communication, while preserving the balance that must exist between individual and collective freedoms and while protecting public order, which is the best warrant as to the effective exercise of these freedoms.

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