Morocco is an African country bordering Algeria. To the west is the Atlantic Ocean and to the north is the Mediterranean Sea. The population of this country is approx 3,79,84,000 with 4,46,300 square kilometers area. Official languages are Arabic and Tamazight. It should be noted that the Tamazight language is artificially created. French is also common. Ethnically 67% are Arab and 31% are Berber. More than 99% are Sunni Muslims.
The first thing that comes to our mind when we hear the word Morocco, since Morocco is a Middle Eastern country, it must be an extreme monarchy. The assumption is partially correct. Many of the articles referred to in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights are in the Moroccan constitution. Democracy has more to fight for, but Morocco is currently ahead of others. Any person who violates the rules and regulations of the probity, honesty and transparency of elections shall be considered a punishable offence. Both Houses of Parliament reserve one meeting each week with priority given to questions from members and answers from the government. The Government must give its response within twenty days from the date of reference to the question.
These are positive aspects. Now let's discuss the negative aspects.
Morocco is a completely Islam-centric state. Monarchy prevails. After the king's death, his eldest son becomes the new king. Much of the power of the state is shared with parliament and the government.
Admirable Articles of Morocco's Constitution
Article 11 (Part of it)
Free, honest and transparent elections constitute the foundation of the legitimacy of democratic representation.
Any person who infringes the provisions and rules of probity, of honesty and of transparency of the elections is punished by the law.
Article 20
The right to life is the first right of any human being. The law protects this right.
Article 21
All have the right to the security of their person and of their kin [proches], and to the protection of their assets.
The public powers assure the security of the populations and of the national territory within respect for the fundamental freedoms and rights guaranteed to all.
Article 22
The physical or moral integrity of anyone may not be infringed, in whatever circumstance that may be, and by any party that may be, public or private.
No one may inflict on others, under whatever pretext there may be, cruel, inhuman, [or] degrading treatments or infringements of human dignity.
The practice of torture, under any of its forms and by anyone, is a crime punishable by the law.
Article 23
No one may be arrested, detained, prosecuted or condemned outside of the cases and the forms provided by the law.
Arbitrary or secret detention and forced disappearance are crimes of the greatest gravity. They expose their authors to the most severe sanctions.
Any detained person has the right to be informed immediately, in a fashion which is comprehensible to him, of the reasons [motifs] of his detention and of his rights, including that of remaining silent. He must benefit, as well, from juridical assistance and of the possibility of communication with his relations, in accordance with the law.
The presumption of innocence and the right to an equitable process are guaranteed.
Any detained person enjoys the fundamental rights and humane conditions of detention. He must benefit from programs of instruction and of reintegration [reinsertion].
All incitement to racism, to hatred and to violence is prohibited.
Genocide and all other crimes against humanity, the crimes of war and all the grave and systematic violations of the Rights of Man are punished by the law.
Article 24 (Part of it)
Any person has the right to the protection of their private life.
The domicile is inviolable. Searches may only intervene in the conditions and the forms provided by the law.
Private communications, under whatever form that may be, are secret. Only justice can authorize, under the conditions and following the forms provided by the law, the access to their content, their total or partial divulgation or their summons [invocation] at the demand [charge] of whosoever.
Article 25
The freedoms of thought, of opinion and of expression under all their forms[,] are guaranteed.
The freedoms of creation, of publication and of presentation in literary and artistic matters and of scientific and technical research are guaranteed.
Article 29
The freedoms of reunion, of assembly, of peaceful demonstration, of association and of syndical and political membership [appartenance], are guaranteed. The law establishes the conditions of the exercise of these freedoms.
The right to strike is guaranteed. An organic law establishes the conditions and the modalities of its exercise.
Article 31
The State, the public establishments and the territorial collectivities work for the mobilization of all the means available [disponibles] to facilitate the equal access of the citizens [feminine] and the citizens [masculine] to conditions that permit their enjoyment of the right:
● to healthcare;
● to social protection, to medical coverage and to the mutual or organized joint and several liability of the State;
● to a modern, accessible education of quality;
● to education concerning attachment to the Moroccan identity and to the immutable national constants;
● to professional instruction and to physical and artistic education;
● to decent housing;
● to work and to the support of the public powers in matters of searching for employment or of self-employment;
● to access to the public functions according to the merits;
● to the access to water and to a healthy environment;
● to lasting [durable] development.
Article 35 (Part of it)
The State guarantees the freedom to contract and free competition. It works for the realization of a lasting human development, likewise to permit the consolidation of social justice and the preservation of the national natural resources and of the rights of the future generations.
The State looks to guarantee the equality of opportunities for all and [to] one specific protection for the socially disfavored categories.
Article 100
One sitting per week is reserved in each Chamber by priority to the questions of the members of it and to the responses of the government.
The government must give its response within the twenty days following the date on which it was referred to [the matter] of the question.
The responses to the questions of general policy are given by the Head of Government. One sitting per month is reserved to these questions and the responses and related replies [afferents] are presented before the Chamber concerned within the thirty days following the date of their transmission to the Head of Government.
Facts of Morocco's Constitution
Preamble (Part of it)
A sovereign Muslim State, attached to its national unity and to its territorial integrity, the Kingdom of Morocco intends to preserve, in its plentitude and its diversity, its one and indivisible national identity. Its unity, is forged by the convergence of its Arab-Islamist, Berber [amazighe] and Saharan-Hassanic [saharo-hassanie] components, nourished and enriched by its African, Andalusian, Hebraic and Mediterranean influences [affluents]. The preeminence accorded to the Muslim religion in the national reference is consistent with [va de pair] the attachment of the Moroccan people to the values of openness, of moderation, of tolerance and of dialog for mutual understanding between all the cultures and the civilizations of the world.
Founded on these values and these immutable principles, and strong in its firm will to reaffirm the bonds of fraternity, or cooperation, or solidarity and of constructive partnership with all other States, and to work for common progress, the Kingdom of Morocco, [a] united State, totally sovereign, belonging the Grand Maghreb, reaffirms that which follows and commits itself:
● To work for the construction of the Union of the Maghreb, as [a] strategic option;
To deepen the bonds of togetherness with the Arab and Islamist Ummah
[Oumma], and to reinforce the bonds of fraternity and of solidarity with
its brother peoples;
This Preamble is made integral part of this Constitution.
Article One (Part of it)
Morocco is a constitutional, democratic, parliamentary and social Monarchy.
The constitutional regime of the Kingdom is founded on the separation, the balance and the collaboration of the powers, as well as on participative democracy of [the] citizen, and the principles of good governance and of the correlation between the responsibility for and the rendering of accounts.
The Nation relies for its collective life on the federative constants [constantes federatrices], on the occurrence of moderate Muslim religion, [on] the national unity of its multiple components [affluents], [on] the constitutional monarchy and [on] democratic choice.
The territorial organization of the Kingdom is decentralized. It is founded on an advanced regionalization.
Article 3
Islam is the religion of the State, which guarantees to all the free exercise of beliefs [cultes].
Article 41
The King, Commander of the Faithful [Amir Al Mouminine], sees to the respect for Islam. He is the Guarantor of the free exercise of beliefs [cultes].
He presides over the Superior Council of the Ulema [Conseil superieur des Oulema], charged with the study of questions that He submits to it.
The Council is the sole instance enabled [habilitee] to comment [prononcer] on the religious consultations (Fatwas) before being officially agreed to, on the questions to which it has been referred [saisi] and this, on the basis of the tolerant principles, precepts and designs of Islam.
The attributions, the composition and the modalities of functioning of the Council are established by Dahir [Royal Decree].
The King exercises by Dahirs the religious prerogatives inherent in the institution of the Emirate of the Faithful [Imarat Al Mouminine] which are conferred on Him in exclusive manner by this Article.
Article 42 (Part of it)
The King Head of State, His Supreme Representative, Symbol of the unity of the Nation, Guarantor of the permanence and of the continuity of the State and Supreme Arbiter between the institutions, sees to respect for the Constitution, to the good functioning of the constitutional institutions, to the protection of democratic choice and of the rights and freedoms of the citizens [feminine] and citizens [masculine], of the collectivities, and to respect for the international commitments of the Kingdom.
He is the Guarantor of the Independence of the country and of the territorial integrity of the Kingdom within its authentic frontiers.
The King exercises these missions by Dahirs by virtue of the powers that are expressly devolved to him by this Constitution.
Article 43
The Crown of Morocco and its constitutional rights are hereditary and are transmitted from father to son through male descendants in direct line and by order of primogeniture of His Majesty The King Mohammed VI, unless the King has designated, in His lifetime, a successor from among His sons, other than His eldest son. When there are no male descendants in direct line, the succession to the Throne is devolved in the closest male collateral line and in the same conditions.
Article 44
The King is a minor until reaching eighteen years [of age]. During the minority of the King, a Council of the Regency [Conseil de Regence] exercises the powers and the constitutional rights of the Crown, except those relative to the revision of the Constitution. The Council of the Regency shall function as [a] consultative organ before the King until the day [when] he has attained the age of eighteen years.
The Council of the Regency is presided over the President of the Constitutional Court. It is composed, moreover, of the Head of Government, of the President of the Chamber of Representatives, of the President of the Chamber of Councilors, of the President-Delegate of the Superior Council of the Judicial Power [President-delegue du Conseil Superieur du Pouvoir Judiciare], of the Secretary General of the Superior Council of the Ulema and of ten prominent persons [personnalites] appointed by the King intuitu personae.
The rules of functioning of the Council of the Regency are established by an organic law.
Article 53
The King is the Supreme Head of the Royal Armed Forces. He appoints to the military offices [emplois] and can delegate this right.
Article 58
The King exercises the right of pardon.
