Moroccan Lawyers Protest Mandatory Arabic Translation Law for Court Documents

"While it has been dragging on since the Constitutional Court ruled on its unconstitutionality in February 2019," this project "has suddenly become an emergency on the eve of the elections, with the aim of being adopted before the end of the parliamentary session," worries the Collective. Article 14 of this text, the document continues, imposes "the translation into Arabic by a sworn translator of all the documents produced in the context of a procedure, unless the court decides otherwise." If this provision remains as is, it "will deprive the vulnerable citizen of fair and free access to justice in his country and will increase judicial delays and processes" and "will produce bottlenecks due to the current translation capabilities (volume of documents to be translated / required time) on a national scale: 406 sworn translators for 2,782,048 cases in 2020."

The Collective denounces what it sees as "a regression in the openness and diversity that characterizes our country," which will "probably put a stop to foreign investments in the face of a justice system that would be structurally heavy, slow and costly in time and money."

Therefore, these lawyers are launching "an urgent appeal" to parliamentarians to modify Article 14 in the direction of maintaining the optional nature of the translation of documents, and not making it an imperative requirement. And the Collective, in conclusion, makes the following proposal: "the documents must be translated if the judge decides so."