Geneva – In a recent report, presented on Wednesday during the ongoing 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Prof. E. Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, has expressed deep concern about racial discrimination and disadvantages suffered by the Amazigh people in morocco, as well as toward their language and culture.
REPORT:
General Background
The Special Rapporteur submits annual thematic reports to the June session of the Human Rights Council (formerly Commission on Human Rights). Thematic reports document the Special Rapporteur’s findings on particular topics and provide guidance and recommendations for UN member States, civil society organizations and other stakeholders.
The preamble to the Constitution commits the Kingdom to a unified but culturally diverse national identity, which centrally includes Amazigh culture and language.28 In consultations, Moroccan authorities acknowledged the importance of Amazigh heritage, but seemed not to consider issues related to Amazigh from a racial equality perspective. Notwithstanding important constitutional, legislative and policy commitments on the part of the Government, the Special Rapporteur heard from representatives of many who identified as Amazigh and Moroccan but who had experienced discrimination, structural exclusion and even racist stereotyping and related intolerance on the basis of their Amazigh language and culture. Amazigh women reported that they often experienced multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination on account of their gender and their Amazigh identity.
Cultural rights
The adoption of a new Constitution in 2011 has made important contributions to the promotion of the Amazigh language and Amazigh culture. Article 5 of the Constitution grants the Amazigh language status as an official language of the State. There are dialects (Tarifit, Tashelhit and Tamazight). In this way, Morocco has implemented an important recommendation previously issued by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.29 Article 5 of the Constitution also provides for the creation of a National Council of Languages and Moroccan Culture mandated to protect and develop the Arabic and Amazigh languages and the diverse Moroccan cultural expressions. The Special Rapporteur welcomes these important developments, noting that it remains to be seen how these provisions will be enforced and applied in practice. She regrets that, more than seven years after the adoption of the Constitution, Morocco has not yet passed the implementing legislation (organic law) required in order to give effect to these constitutional provisions. As a result, the elaboration and implementation of policy reforms that are urgently needed in order to ensure that the equality of all Moroccans that is guaranteed in the Constitution becomes a practical reality, are also being delayed. This delay is unacceptable and the Government must make every effort to bring it to an end.
During her visit, the Special Rapporteur learned about the steps Moroccan authorities had taken, in cooperation with the Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe, to promote the Amazigh language in education and the media. Amazigh language teaching was officially introduced into the education system in 2003. Since then, Morocco has worked to gradually strengthen the position of the Amazigh language, inter alia by hiring and training Amazigh language teachers. By 2017, the Government had hired 294 specialized teachers to provide Amazigh language classes to approximately 400,000 pupils in 4,000 primary schools.30 In 2018, 498 specialized teachers provided Amazigh language classes to more than 600,000 pupils. Although the Special Rapporteur acknowledges these efforts, she is concerned that progress remains slow and inadequate. According to information received, only 13 per cent of primary school students receive Amazigh language classes, and it is estimated that approximately 100,000 teachers would be needed to cover the 4.5 million students enrolled in primary schools.
In addition to the lack of sufficient numbers of specialized teachers, the Special Rapporteur learned of persistent shortcomings regarding the adequacy of the teaching of the Amazigh language at all levels of education and in all regions, the promotion of the use of Amazigh as the language of instruction, and the mainstreaming of Amazigh language and culture in school curricula. Concerning the representation of Amazigh language and culture in the media, the Special Rapporteur learned about progress made in relation to the availability of Amazigh programmes, training for journalists, and the daily hours of broadcasting in Amazigh. Despite these developments, Amazigh remain underrepresented in the audio and visual media. Interlocutors noted that only one out of nine public television was devoted to Amazigh culture and language. Television channels and radio stations are required to allocate 30 per cent of their time to Amazigh-language programs.
Access to justice
The Special Rapporteur was informed that Amazigh speakers continued to experience significant communication difficulties in their interactions with the State administration and the judiciary. These difficulties are often the result of the relevant officials lacking Amazigh-language skills, the predominance of Arabic as the sole language of the juridical sphere, and the absence of adequate Amazigh-language resources such as sworn interpreters. Both the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights have previously emphasized that the predominance of Arabic within the State bureaucracy poses a barrier to equal and effective access to justice for those who are not fluent in Arabic. 31 The limited availability of qualified, certified interpreters creates communication difficulties for Amazigh-speakers at every stage of the legal process, including during court proceedings, which can have serious consequences for the substantive adjudication of their cases and may lead to violations of the right to equal treatment, effective protection and redress before the courts. In order to ensure equality and non-discrimination in the administration of justice, Morocco should strengthen its efforts to advance the use of the Amazigh language in judicial and administrative proceedings and to guarantee the availability of free interpretation services. This is a crucial step for empowering all individuals to claim the rights they are entitled to enjoy under Moroccan and international law.
Socioeconomic marginalization
The Amazigh also reported experiencing racial discrimination in their enjoyment of economic and social rights – a concern that both the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights raised in their concluding observations.32 Although Morocco has achieved substantial progress in reducing poverty, Amazigh communities remain concerned that regional disparities, inequality and the urban-rural gap in poverty remain significant. Amazigh are disproportionately affected, since the predominately Amazigh-speaking regions (the Rif, Atlas, Assamer and Souss regions) are the poorest in the country and thus face the greatest challenges in terms of infrastructure and the adequate provision of basic services such as water, sanitation and health-care facilities. Amazigh communities inhabiting rural areas and those who were not fluent in Arabic reported persisting, structural marginalization and discrimination with regard to equal access to employment and health services. In these areas, cultural identity intersecting with rural economic marginalization seemingly creates regions in which residents enjoy a poorer quality of life, compared to those residing in urban areas. In addition, some civil society representatives reported that stereotypes associated with rural inhabitants of areas where the Amazigh language and Amazigh culture were especially salient often meant that people from those regions faced discrimination when they attempted to settle in more urban areas.
Moreover, concerns were raised regarding Amazigh communities’ ownership and control over land, forests and natural resources, which were inherently tied to Amazigh tradition and culture. Amazigh representatives reported experiencing inequality and discrimination with regard to forced displacement, land dispossession and environmental despoilment of rural areas across the country. This often occurred in the context of development projects and natural resource extraction by private actors or public authorities. For example, the Special Rapporteur was told about several regions in which mining companies exploited land and resources without paying due regard to the needs and rights of the communities affected. Issues connected to land and resource use are rooted in colonial-era laws, which disbanded previously existing communal land and property ownership structures and led to the dispossession of land that had been traditionally inhabited by Amazigh communities. The cumulative effect of colonial-era laws and landownership structures, combined with contemporary agricultural and land use projects, reportedly remains cause for serious concern in parts of the country.
The Special Rapporteur wishes to emphasize that ensuring the equal status of all in the Kingdom requires the necessary measures to be taken to protect the economic, social and cultural rights of all communities. Especially with regard to the socioeconomic marginalization of Amazigh communities, the Special Rapporteur recalls that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has previously called upon Morocco to remedy regional disparities and combat the de facto discrimination against Amazigh, if necessary by adopting special measures. The adoption of temporary special measures is provided for under article 1 (4) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination “to secure to disadvantaged groups the full and equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
Civic space
Finally, the Special Rapporteur notes that she has received a number of allegations concerning violations of the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, of peaceful assembly and of association, encountered by Amazigh communities and activists. Such restrictions were reported in relation to, inter alia, the registration and functioning of Amazigh associations, political parties and student organizations; authorization for activities and events; the banning of marches; and the use of public halls. Concerns about the securitized approach towards Amazigh activists were also brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur, particularly with regard to the Hirak movement, student activists, and those defending land rights.
See the full report here: undocs
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