Morocco Considers Bill to Add Amazigh Language to Civil Registry Documents

This is a bill aimed at amending and supplementing Articles 23 and 36 of Law No. 37.99, relating to the civil status. The objective is to include the Amazigh language in the civil status as an official language of Morocco and to create harmony between national legislation and the provisions of the Constitution, reports L’Opinion.

According to the initiators, this law, if adopted, will give the Amazigh language its true constitutional meaning, by adding it alongside the Arabic language in the civil status. The new bill proposes a modification of the first paragraph of Article No. 23 of the law on civil status. "The civil status written in Arabic and Amazigh. Proper names, family names, place of birth and parents’ names written in Latin letters next to the Arabic letters..."

Regarding the amendment of Article No. 36 of the same law, the bill stipulates: "the examination of requests aimed at revising civil status tax data, with the exception of requests for replacement of the surname and correction of names and first names in Latin or Amazigh letters, or by writing them with these letters, in addition to Arabic."