Summary of the Address of the Speaker of House of Representative on the opening of a Seminar on the Theme "Participatory Democracy between the Problems of Reality and Development Prospects"

On Tuesday, February 25^th , 2020, the House of Representatives convened a seminar on the theme "Participatory Democracy between the Problems of Reality and Development Prospects", with the participation of civil society officials, Moroccan and foreign experts, particularly the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, whose presence reflects the strong friendship between the Kingdom of Morocco and the United Kingdom.

The organization of the seminar highlights the strong commitment of the House of Representatives to consolidate the partnership initiative between the House, and civil society bodies to promote participatory democracy.

The time has come to enhance this citizenship practice. All the actors are concerned, either on the legislature, the executive, and the local elected institutions level are concerned with the right to submit petitions, in addition to the civil society concerned with framing citizen initiatives.

To this end, the House of Representatives has been keen to provide the appropriate framework for receiving petitions of citizens, by creating a committee to receive petitions pursuant to a decision of the House of Representative's board, one that will expand its prerogatives to include motions.

The House of Representatives created, in partnership with the government, the digital system for submitting petitions, in addition to the new website of the House of Representatives that aims to create a platform, to establish communication between institutions and civil society through an interactive process.

Associations and non-governmental organizations have great responsibilities in contributing to the governance of public affairs and efficacy of the public policies. The role of civil society was no longer limited to protests and criticism but rather extended to the proposal and participation to become a partner for institutions.

However, civil society will not succeed in its mission if it does not maintain its independence and adhere to the goals set by the Constitution, so the boundaries between political and civil should remain preserved.

We should  commend the new vision provided by the Moroccan Constitution, which is pioneering, as it evokes the importance of expanding participation in the field of participatory democracy, by broadening the participation and empowering citizens to contribute and influence legislation on public policies. I invite you to enumerate the problems and obstacles that hinder the implementation of these initiatives that I would like to shed light on.

The first difficulty manifests itself in the process, which concerns the number of signatures necessary for the petition to be admitted.

The second challenge is the need for certain skills as prerequisites for legal drafting. In this regard, we will work to implement training programs for the benefit of civil society organizations.

The third impediment is what we might call a misunderstanding due to the management of communication between civil society bodies, and the institutions concerned with the petitions and motions.

In this regard, I call you upon to make the best use of the means guaranteed by the Right of Access to Information law , as well as the institutional websites, including the platform of the House of Representative, which allows you to be kept abreast of legislation processes and all the update in this regard.

The potential that Moroccan civil society has and the rights guaranteed to it constitutionally are valuable opportunities to frame the citizen initiatives, which is an instrument of enrichment and support for institutional democracy, consolidating democratic assets, and stimulating positive participation. It is a tool to foster representative democracy framed by the stability, and unity of our country in light of the constants of our national consensus under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God bless him.