Address of Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami at Opening of Seminar on the Evaluation of Laws

<p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><strong>In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, Peace and Prayer be upon the Messenger of Allah and His Honorable Companions</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Esteemed Representatives and Councilors, </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Excellency the Ambassador of the European Union to the Kingdom of Morocco, </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Distinguished professors and experts, </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Ladies and gentlemen, </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I am pleased to open with you the proceedings of this seminar that tackles a theme that tops, in the current context, the interests of legislative institutions, partners in democracy, academics, and research institutions. As you all know, the theme is the evaluation of the implementation of laws and identification of their impact on societies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">First of all, I want to praise the partnership between the European Union and the House of Representatives with regard to supporting democracy and facilitating exchanges and dialogue between our House and several European national legislative institutions, as reflected in the Second Twinning Project in progress.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I also want to commend the partnership between the House and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which aims to facilitate the mutual exploration of parliamentary practices and support the political and institutional partnership and dialogue between the Moroccan Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, regulated since 2011 by the “Partner for Democracy” status that the Moroccan Parliament enjoys within the said Assembly.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I seize this occasion to affirm our aspiration for a further advanced status and a deeper partnership with this Parliamentary Assembly, and with the Council of Europe in general, intending to capitalize on the gains we have achieved in our relationship and value the democratic and institutional maturity our country has acquired, as noted by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah glorify him, in his Message to the members of the Parliament on occasion of the 60^th Anniversary of the first elected Parliament in the Kingdom of Morocco.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The upgrade of the partnership between the Moroccan Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe would also be an appreciation of the significant multifaceted and multidimensional institutional reforms conducted by the Kingdom of Morocco and an entrenchment of the Kingdom’s regional and international positioning.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Ladies and gentlemen, </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As you know, the 2011 Constitution, which featured drastic reforms, launched reform dynamics in various areas, regulated the preservation of rights, and enlarged the scope of law and the Parliament's prerogatives, stipulates the addition of public policy evaluation to the Parliament's powers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It is a core reform to anchor the parliamentary practice, the Rule of Law, the State of institutions, and good governance. Seeking to implement this reform, the House of Representatives ensured the elaboration and publishing of a reference framework for public policy evaluation, considered one of the pioneering initiatives at the international level and a reference guide to conduct evaluation under precise criteria and rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Following four public policy evaluation processes between 2015 and 2021, we launched during the ongoing Legislative Term six evaluation processes, including one that concerns the evaluation of the conditions of implementation of Law 103-13 on fighting violence against women, a law that is highly important in terms of its stakes at the level of society, rights, and democracy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">However, before focusing on the context surrounding the evaluation of this law, allow me to share with you some of the stakes and objectives of evaluating the implementation of laws.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It is a practice that combines the three known prerogatives conferred to parliaments, namely, legislation, government action control, and public policy evaluation. Hence, when we subject the implementation of a specific law to evaluation, we target ameliorating it or revising it partially or totally. Yet, prior to that, questioning the Government regarding the law's implementation, its conditions, efficiency, and yield remains one of the prerogatives that Parliaments must exercise as part of their interaction with the Executive.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">When we subject any law to evaluation, we seek to identify the impact of its implementation on society, measure its efficiency and the degree to which the category concerned with its implementation is satisfied with it, as well as diagnose the obstacles that hinder the achievement of the goals aspired from it. On that basis, Parliaments and Governments can behave based on their perception and knowledge of the impact of legislation and move to reform or change, meaning the intervention by means of law to overcome the shortcomings and provide the material and human resources necessary to implement the law and address the obstacles to its implementation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In order for the ex-post evaluation of laws to be efficient, the law in question must be in force for at least three years as an international criterion, and the evaluation methodology must involve the category concerned with its implementation and civil society representatives. Besides, hearing sessions as a source to gather the largest amount of information and data regarding the implementation of the said law are an essential tool to guarantee the quality of evaluation, which would spark the interest of the public opinion in parliamentary action and harness support for reforms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Ladies and gentlemen, </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Within the scope of their quest to address the challenges democracy faces in the 21^st Century, including anti-institution tendencies, the regression of political engagement, and electoral abstention, many parliaments, including the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco, strengthen their prerogatives and functions, mainly through control and the evaluation of public policies and programs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Indeed, that would give new impetus to democratic practice, participation, and trust in institutions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The evaluation of laws sits at the heart of this orientation to renew the parliamentary practice and is one of the features of the new democracy. One of its advantages is that it facilitates the launch of new dynamics in parliamentary life in its relation to the questions of society, alerts us to the deficiencies that might characterize national laws, and pushes us to engage other actors in the evaluation, and hence foresee the future, which increases the yield of laws and advances democracy in general.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In this respect, the House of Representatives chose Law 103.13 on fighting violence against women as the subject of evaluation by the House. It is a central text among national laws with human rights, societal, economic, educational, and cultural extensions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Despite violence against women being a condemned and rejected practice and a violation of the human rights of women and children, it is still, unfortunately, a global phenomenon that is observed in various societies, civilizations, and cultures and that requires addressing its roots and reasons, including vulnerability and social representations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If the adoption of this law falls within the scope of the human rights reforms conducted by the Kingdom of Morocco for almost 25 years, particularly the reforms in favor of women and families under the high patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah glorify him, its evaluation after nearly five years of its entry into force reflects the collective desire to ameliorate it and make it further efficient, and embodies the political will to eradicate this phenomenon that goes against the principles of human rights and human values, by providing the legal bases for restraint, prevention, education, and the provision of support for victims.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The evaluation of this law by the House of Representatives coincides, as you are aware, with the launch by His Majesty, the Commander of the Faithful, of the process of revising the Family Code after around twenty years of its entry into force and appointment by His Majesty of a body tasked with the elaboration of concepts and venues for revision, in order to redress the imbalances diagnosed throughout implementation, and to render the provisions of the Code aligned with the Constitution that we are proud of as a progressive and liberal constitution that guarantees rights and obligations, and grasps the spirit of its era and the authentic Moroccan values.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We also cherish that this project, and the reform and regulation of the questions of family, enjoy the supervision, solicitude, and attention of His Majesty as Commander of the Faithful, the same way that we feel pride in the methodology of dialogue and involvement followed by the Committee in charge of revising the Family Code in elaborating the propositions it will submit to His Majesty.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This approach embodies the choice of participation and consensus that distinguishes the Moroccan model of adopting grand social reforms, which has contributed, thanks to the accumulation of reforms, to the emergence of a unique Moroccan democratic and institutional model that makes our country an ascending democratic and economic power that innovates in combining its deep-rooted and rich civilizational depth, its entrenched institutional traditions, and the positive values of our era.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Ladies and gentlemen, </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the Kingdom of Morocco, we are aware that safeguarding the rights of women and families cannot be reduced to laws, regulation, and institutions. On the contrary, it requires public policies and interventions that grant laws a concrete meaning of empowerment and ownership of the means to secure sustainable revenues, thus ensuring women’s independence and distancing them from vulnerability and marginalization.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In this regard, we should recall the programs of social protection and direct aid to the disadvantaged, including women, as they are part of the projects that enjoy peculiar Royal attention.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Ladies and gentlemen, </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I will not dwell on the details of evaluating laws and diagnosing their impact and the approaches adopted by Parliaments in this respect, each according to their institutional context. However, I want to praise the effort of the Thematic Group we appointed as the Board of the House of Representatives and Chairpersons of the Parliamentary Groups and Caucus to conduct this first exercise in evaluating laws. I also hail the approach of openness and involvement it adopted through the hearing sessions it held with various institutions, administrations, and non-governmental organizations, taking into account that we are willing to discuss the report it is on the verge of finalizing during the next legislative session.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I seize this opportunity to praise the participation of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission for Democracy through Law and laud their assiduity and openness, noting our aspiration for further cooperation with this think-tank in which the Kingdom of Morocco has been a member since 2007.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As much as we are proud, in the House of Representatives, of the accumulations we have achieved in terms of distinguished practices in evaluating public policies and linking that to the current national context, to the extent that I consider us close to a Moroccan parliamentary approach for evaluating public policies, as much as we are keen to regularly advance this prerogative and anchor the evaluation of the impact of laws as a part of this practice.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The ultimate objective is to implement good governance in public policies, measure the impact of public spending, ensure rights, and guarantee continuous legislative vigilance to overcome the shortcomings and ameliorate our national laws to secure rights and impose obligations within the framework of the State of institutions and the Rule of Law.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" align="center"><strong>I wish you success in your proceedings and thank you for your keen listening.</strong></p>