Rabat – The Moroccan Ministry of Justice signed an agreement on Wednesday with the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) to integrate the Tamazight (Berber) language into the country’s judicial system.
This cooperation agreement comes with the aim of seeking justice for the Moroccan communities who do not speak Arabic, according to the dean of IRCAM, Ahmed Boukouss.
Members of these communities will now be able to use their mother tongue and communicate in courtrooms, which will eliminate a major barrier for them in judicial proceedings.
Minister of Justice Mohamed Ben Abdelkader said the ministry has started to implement an action plan relating to the enforcement of article 32 of the organizational law 26-16 for the official activation of Tamazight.
The law follows the requirements of a circular that the head of the government, Saad Eddine El Othmani, sent to government sectors last December.
The first operation to implement the action plan is the installation of new signs that include Tamazight within the ministry, courtrooms, regional directorates, and more.
In addition to the signs, the ministry will issue a dictionary of legal and judicial terms and deploy Tamazight speakers in front desks. Further measures will include a continuous training in Tamazight for judges and court staff.
The judiciary’s move to empower Amazigh follows the General Directorate of National Security’s (DGSN) decision to release a new generation of identity cards, sparking outrage among Tamazight-speaking communities for not including their language in the new document.
The Moroccan League for Tamazight condemned the new reform, saying it goes against Morocco’s constitution and the framework of law 26-16 that aims to gradually include Tamazight in the public sphere.
Article 21 of the same law recommends the use of Tamazight alongside Arabic in national identification and administrative documents.
As French usually comes as a second language in such documents, the league expressed its “astonishment” at the draft law’s inclusion of French, “a foreign non-constitutional language,” instead of Tamazight.
