Morocco’s House of Councilors, IRCAM Join Forces To Officialize Tamazight

Rabat – Morocco’s House of Councilors and the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) signed today a cooperation agreement to ensure the implementation of the officialization of the Amazigh language and the facilitation of its use by the Moroccan parliament.

The two institutions vowed to work together to set up joint action plans for training and seminars in the Amazigh language and culture at the House of Councilors, while strengthening cooperation through the exchange of experiences.
With the Amazigh culture and language representing an indispensable aspect of Morocco’s identity, Naama Mayara, President of the House of Councilors, spoke of the Council’s determination to implement the provisions of the 2011 constitution.

Article 5 of Morocco’s 2011 constitution states that “Tamazight constitutes an official language of the State, being common patrimony of all Moroccans without exception.”

Mayara made his remarks during the opening ceremony of a meeting held on May 17-18 and focused on officializing the Amazigh language and integrating it into the plenary meetings of the Council.

The MP also noted that the establishment of IRCAM helped not only in preserving Amazigh culture, but also in integrating the language into society, especially in education and the media.

He also emphasized the need to promote and embrace multilingualism in the work sessions of the parliament, while reinforcing the presence of Arabic and Tamazight given the two languages’ significance in Morocco’s history, identity, and cultural heritage.

Mayara pledged to include a simultaneous interpretation in the Tamazight and Arabic languages in the Council’s plenary sessions of oral questions and official meetings, while also launching a Tamazight version of the parliament’s official newspaper.

IRCAM’s director, Ahmed Boukous, said the integration of Tamazight in public and national institutions comes as a continuous work of its previous implementation in the educational system and the media landscape.

He noted that the partnership represents a crucial and important phase for Tamazight that would provide the right environment for its preservation as part of the country’s identity.

During the two-day conference, the upper house of the Moroccan parliament detailed its aim to implement the organic law 26.16, which determines the phases of the process to implement the official character of Amazigh language.

Promulgated in 2019, the law stipulates that all ministerial departments should prepare action plans to integrate Tamazight into their work sessions.

With the participation of several representatives from IRCAM, experts from UNESCO and the UNDP, as well as ministerial departments and public institutions, the upper house also seeks to develop recommendations and proposals for an effective integration of Tamazight.

The interactive session is organized with the support of the “Morocco-European Union institutional twinning program” and the Council of Europe’s program to “support the role of parliament in the consolidation of democracy in Morocco.”

Participants are also set to examine Morocco’s constitutional, institutional, and legislative approaches aimed at officializing the Amazigh language and culture as a lever for sustainable development.