What has been achieved so far in the aspect relating to the presentation of petitions and motions to elected and executive authorities, as part of the policy of parliamentary openness, is not up to the national ambition, it does not reflect the dynamism, strength and extensions of Moroccan civil society, declared the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Indeed, Moroccan civil society has been characterized, for decades, by its contribution to the enrichment of the cultural field and the realization of diversity, the achievement of development, the strengthening of the social and solidarity economy and the the defense of human rights, without forgetting its contribution to the preservation of Moroccan personality and to national awareness of colonization, said Rachid Talbi Alami, Speaker of the House of Representatives at the opening of the Meeting of Communication on participatory democracy.
According to the President of the Parliamentary Chamber, the organization of this communication meeting with civil society organizations on the implementation of participatory and citizen democracy is part of the policy of openness and commitment adopted by the House, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. He makes it known that this approach aims to “ the implementation of the commitments made in the context of the Open Government Partnership, in which our country occupies a privileged position”.
Talbi Alami specified in particular that the objective of this meeting is to find the means to ensure that civil society contributes to the enrichment of democracy, plays its roles, exercises the rights guaranteed to it by the Constitution and the relevant legislation, and oversees citizens’ initiatives in relation to petitions presented to public and representative authorities, and motions in legislative matters to the legislative branch.
” It is a deeply rooted Moroccan democratic model, based on the accumulation of reforms, which has put in place for this purpose a constitutional framework, legislations, institutions and constitutional mechanisms that facilitate its sustainability, solidity and his immunity“, said the president in his address.
Furthermore, he underlines that the civil organizations present during the meeting are only a representative sample of Moroccan civil society, which has more than 200,000 associations, working in different aspects of public life in all regions of Morocco.
” This spatial and thematic diversity in civil society and the dynamism that characterizes it are clear proof of the richness of Moroccan cultural and civil pluralism and gives an expressive image of the freedom of organization, initiative and supervision, which corresponds partisan pluralism, the richness of the political landscape, the national partisan system and the pluralism of its political and theoretical ideologies“, he adds.
Thus, the President of the Chamber appealed to the capitalization of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the relevant legislation for civil society, in order to achieve the objectives set. But during this meeting, we must face up to the obstacles which make the national record in terms of participatory democracy and the role of civil society in its implementation fall short of common ambitions, and for that we must work together to overcome them“, lamented Talbi Alami.
To this end, Rachid Talbi Alami made five recommendations, in particular the simplification of the procedures and the conditions required for the petition or the motion in legislative matters to be admissible, the need to have the necessary skills which should be met among the supervisors or the authors of the citizens’ initiative, namely the petition or the motion, the management of communication between civil society organizations on the one hand, and the institutions concerned by petitions and motions in legislative matters on the other go.
In addition, the use of information in a more optimal way, in particular legislative information, as well as investing in information technologies for this purpose and the efficiency of the choice of the content of the citizens’ initiative (petition or motion in legislative matters), he continues.