House of Councilors to Adopt Tamazight in Parliament Sessions

Rabat – Morocco’s House of Councilors is set to hold a meeting debate on May 17 and 18 about officializing the Amazigh language and integrating it into the plenary meetings of the Council.

The meeting is organized in partnership with the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) with the participation of several experts from UNESCO and the UN Development Program (UNDP).

During the meeting, the House of Councilors and IRCAM will sign a cooperation agreement aimed at strengthening technical support and providing continuous training to integrate Amazigh into the work of parliament and facilitate its use as an official language.

The work of the interactive conference will be divided into two axes, namely “Linguistic diversity: a lever for participatory democracy and sustainable development” and “The action plan of the House of Councilors on the officialization of the Amazigh language in plenary sessions.”

The debate, held within the framework of the Chamber’s strategic plan for 2022-2027, seeks to draft recommendations and proposals to implement the House of Councilors’ action plans, which includes the adoption of Tamazight in its work.

President of the House of Councilors Naama Mayara will chair the meeting to examine Morocco’s constitutional, institutional, and legislative approaches aimed at officializing the Amazigh language and culture as a lever for sustainable development, the House said in a statement.

The two-days meeting is also expected to shed light on the House of Councilors’ commitment to consolidating the role of parliament in the country, mainly in terms of legislation, public policies, communication, and openness to the social environment.

Meanwhile, participants and experts will review the academic expertise of leading national institutions, including IRCAM, in the promotion and formalization of the Amazigh language.

They will also conduct a comparative analysis of how to manage multilingualism in plenary sessions and in other similar parliamentary conferences.

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.”

In April, The Speaker of Morocco’s House of Representatives Rachid Talbi El Alami announced the official adoption of Arabic and Tamazight interpretation in its plenary sessions.

As part of Morocco’s plan to officialize Tamazight, the government plans to establish a special fund for the language. Financed by the state budget, the fund’s goal is to reach MAD 1 billion ($108 million) by 2025.

Akhannouch’s government has long expressed its ambitions to catch up on the delay of officializing the Amazigh language in the country as it already took the kingdom almost eight years to pass a law that institutionalized Tamazight.