[Excerpts - Non-official translation into English]
Dahir no. 1-01-299, of October 17, 2001 (29 rajab al khaïr 1422) Establishing the Creation of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture
PRAISE THE ONLY LORD.
(Under the hand and seal of His Majesty Mohammed VI)
May it be known – May God elevate and fortify its essence.
ACCOUNT OF MOTIVES:
1- In order to fulfil
the work started by Our Venerated Ancestors, We have committed ourselves to
preserving the fundamental basis of the Moroccan secular identity, which is
unified by means of the Kingdom’s holy and intangible values: faith
in God, love to the Fatherland, allegiance to the King –Amir Al Mouminine,
Commander of the Faithful–, and attachment to the constitutional monarchy;
2- Making reference to the discourse of the Throne addressed to the Nation
on July 30, 2001, on the occasion of the Feast of the Throne, which stressed
the plural character of our national identity: “A plural identity, as
it has been constructed on the basis of diverse tributaries: Amazigh, Arabian,
African-Subsaharan and Andalusian, all of them being compounds which, on account
of their openness to other cultures and civilisations and by interacting with
them, have contributed to refine and enrich our identity…”;
3- Being convinced that the recognition of our people’s cultural and
linguistic heritage strengthens national unity by consolidating our identity;
4- Being mindful that the aim of democratic practice within the framework
of Rule of Law is to achieve equality of rights and duties among all Moroccan
citizens;
5- Longing to strengthen the substratum of our culture and the interwoven
identity of our Nation, enriched through the diversity of its tributaries;
6- Wishing to further develop the language policy defined by the National
Charter of Education and Training (Charte Nationale d’Éducation
et de Formation), which establishes the introduction of the Amazigh language
in the educational system;
7- Being convinced that the codification of the Amazigh alphabet will facilitate
its teaching, its learning, and its dissemination, it will guarantee equal
opportunities of all children of our country to have access to knowledge,
and it will consolidate national unity;
8- Considering that the establishment of such an institution, created by Our
Sharifian Majesty, set under Our tutelage and being in charge of protecting,
promoting and strengthening the position of our Amazigh culture within the
nation’s educational, socio-cultural and mass-media spheres, as well
as taking care of local and regional matters, will give the Amazigh culture
a new push, as it will contribute to our national richness and will be a source
of pride for all Moroccan citizens;
9- Being absolutely positive that the support we provide to Our Majesty by
having clear opinions in order to protect and promote this culture requires
that this Royal Institution be composed of people who are acknowledged for
their intellectual capacity and their awareness of the plural features of
our national culture;
10- Longing that this Royal Institution of Amazigh Culture fulfils its missions
under the best circumstances, Our Sharifian Majesty has granted it financial
and administrative autonomy.
On account of these motives:
Our Sharifian Majesty, pursuant to Article 19 of the Constitution, HAS DECIDED THE FOLLOWING:
Article 1-
An institution called “Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture” (“Institut
Royal de la Culture Amazighe”, IRCAM) shall be created by Our Sharifian
Majesty and be set under Our tutelage; it shall also be granted full legal
capacity and financial autonomy, and it shall be defined by the present Dahir.
The Institute shall be ruled by the present Dahir, which establishes its general
regulations, and by the texts adopted as implementation thereof.
The Institute’s seat shall be in Rabat.
Article 2
– The Institute, created to this end by Our Majesty, shall provide Us
with opinions on the measures to take in order to ensure and promote the Amazigh
culture in all its expressions.
In collaboration with the concerning governmental authorities and institutions,
the Institute shall take part in the implementation of policies proposed by
Our Majesty, which ought to allow the introduction of the Amazigh language
within the educational system and guarantee the dissemination of the Amazigh
language throughout the social, cultural and media spheres, at the national,
regional and local level.
Article 3
– In order to fulfil the duties it has been assigned pursuant to above-mentioned
Article 2, the Institute shall be in charge of the following actions and activities,
which are to be carried out according to the programmes approved by virtue
of Article 7 (last paragraph) below:
1 – to gather and transcribe all expressions of the Amazigh culture,
to safeguard and protect them, and to ensure their dissemination;
2 – to carry out research and study tasks on the Amazigh culture and
facilitate access to it to as many people as possible, and to encourage researchers
and experts of pertaining fields;
3 – to promote the artistic creations of the Amazigh culture, in order
to contribute to the renewal and dissemination of the Moroccan heritage and
of its civilisational specificities;
4 – to study the alphabet in order to facilitate the teaching of the
Amazigh language by:
- producing the needed didactic tools to this
end, and elaborating general lexicons and specialised dictionaries;
- preparing pedagogical schemes to be
used both within the general education and within programmes concerning local
and regional affairs;
All of which being in accordance with the general State policy on national
education;
5 – to contribute to the elaboration of initial and continuing training
programmes to the advantage of the teaching staff in charge of the teaching
of the Amazigh language, to public officials and agents who have to use them
for professional reasons, and, in a general way, to any person willing to
learn it;
6 – to help universities, if necessary, to organise Amazigh language
and culture research and development centres, and to train teachers;
7 – to find methods aiming at promoting and reinforcing the position
of the Amazigh language within the communication and information spheres;
8 – to create cooperation relationships with national and foreign institutions
and establishments, which have a cultural and scientific vocation and pursue
similar aims.
Article 4 – The Institute shall be administered by an administrative board and it shall be directed by a headmaster.
Article 5
– The Institute’s administrative board shall be
composed of the headmaster, the president and 40 members, of which:
- five (5) shall represent the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Higher
Education, the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs,
and the Ministry of Communication;
- one (1) shall be a university principal representing all universities; he
shall be appointed by Our Majesty on the basis of a proposal made by Our Government’s
Minister of Higher Education;
- and one (1) academy director shall represent all educational and training
regional academies; he shall be appointed by Our Majesty on the basis of a
proposal made by Our Government’s Minister of National Education.
The Institute’s headmaster may summon to the meetings of the administrative
board, in an advisory capacity, any person whose opinion he estimates useful,
any time he or she deems it necessary.
Article 6
– The Institute’s headmaster shall be appointed
by Our Majesty.
The other members of the Institute’s administrative board shall be appointed,
and expelled if necessary, by Our Majesty, on the basis of a proposal made
by the Institute’s headmaster, for a 4-year mandate, which may be renewed
only once, according to the procedure described in Article 9, paragraph 2,
below.
The appointment of the first members of the board by Our Majesty shall be
carried out on the basis of a proposal made by the provisional commission,
as specified in Article 18, below.
[…]
Article 7
– The Institute’s administrative board shall be invested with
all needed powers and assignments to administer the Institute.
To this end, it shall deliberate over the annual or multiannual programmes
containing the actions that the Institute intends to undertake, in order to
give notice to Our Majesty on the questions that We submit him or that are
necessary for carrying out the duties specified in Article 3, above.
Furthermore, apart from the specific assignments devolved to it through the
dispositions of this Dahir, the board shall deliberate in order to stipulate:
- the Institute’s internal rules;
- the staff’s status;
- the Institute’s budget proposal and the de annual accounts cut-off.
The Institute’s headmaster shall submit all decisions made by the board
to the High approval of Our Majesty.
[…]
Article 10
– The Institute’s headmaster shall hold all needed
powers to carry out the decisions made by the administrative board.
To this end, the headmaster:
- shall direct the Institute, act on behalf of it, realise or authorise any
acts or operations concerning its object;
- shall administer the Institute’s bodies and its administrative, financial
and technical services;
- shall represent the Institute vis-à-vis the State, any public administration
and any third party;
- shall accomplish any conservatory acts on behalf of the Institute;
- shall establish any contract or convention on behalf of the Institute for
cooperation with any public or private institution, either national or foreign,
and shall submit it to the approval of the administrative board;
- shall appoint or recruit the Institute’s staff, its experts and its
technicians;
- shall safeguard the execution of the decisions made by the administrative
board and lay down its meetings’ agenda.
[…]
Article 12 – The Institute’s budget shall be the provisional document containing the Institute’s annual expenditure and revenue. As regards the revenue, it shall particularly include State grants, whose amount shall be registered in the Royal Court’s budget. […]
Article 13
– The headmaster is obliged to submit a detailed annual
report to Our Majesty, on the Institute’s activities, which shall be
previously approved by the administrative board.
This report shall include a statement containing the actions carried out by
the Institute over the past year and the programmes and projects it intends
to realise throughout the current year or throughout the following years.
Our Majesty shall order, if necessary, the publication of the whole or part
of its content in the "Official Gazette".
[…]
Article 15
– As regards the rules contained within the Dahir herein,
the internal rules shall particularly specify the Institute’s administrative,
financial and technical structures and its working modalities.
[…]
Article 16
– In addition to the staff recruited on the basis of its
status, the Institute’s staff shall be composed of:
- public officers seconded to the Institute by the public administrations,
especially by Regional Education and Training Schools and universities, particularly
teachers-researchers, pursuant to legal and regulatory provisions in force;
- experts and specialists recruited on the basis of a fixed term contract
or who shall be made available to the Institute by relevant public education
and research establishments, for a fixed term, within the framework of conventions
for cooperation between the Institute and these establishments.
[…]
Article 18 – For the initial set-up of the Institute, Our Sharifian Majesty shall appoint a provisional commission, which shall be composed, in addition of the Institute’s headmaster, of four persons of position in charge of proposing to Our Majesty the members of the Institute’s administrative board and of taking any required administrative and financial measures for the establishment of the Institute’s bodies, so that they may take over the assignments devolved to them by virtue of this Dahir, from January 2002.
Article 19 – This Dahir shall be published in the Official Gazette.
Done in Khénifra, on October 17, 2001 (29 rajab al khaïr 1422).