Excellencies,

Dear colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

First of all, I would like to congratulate the Chair and Mongolia for its activity and efforts in assuming the actual Presidency of the Community of Democracies, as well as the Troïka and the Executive Committee. My congratulations go also to the Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Maria Leissner.

I hereby commend, particularly, H.E. Surel Badral, Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for the Mongolian Presidency, for his leadership and commitment in coordinating the action of the Presidency and the proceedings of the Governing Council’s meetings.

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew the commitment of the Kingdom of Morocco within the Community of Democracies and our engagement to spare no efforts to achieve the noble goals of our organization in promoting democracy, human rights and good governance practices. By the same token, I acknowledge and praise the efforts to give the organization more visibility and effectiveness on the world stage.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

The Kingdom of Morocco shares the common vision of the world as a global space for liberty and justice as well as for democracy promotion in favor of all its peoples.

While valorizing its long standing heritage and diverse culture, Morocco spares no efforts to affirm its opening to other cultures and civilizations in a globalized world that more and more exposed to extremisms.

As an engaged actor in the debate to encourage understanding between different peoples and regions of the world, Morocco has always been and still is a fervent partisan of dialogue among civilizations and religions.

Morocco confirms its readiness to explore all opportunities of cooperation and new ways of coordination with other members of this organization to give more visibility to the Community of Democracies. To this end, an invitation was addressed to the Permanent secretary, Ambassador Maria Leissner, to pay an official visit to Morocco, and we look forward to discussing ways to enhance our common goals.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Having launched a series of political, economic and social reforms since the early nineteen nineties (1990s), Morocco is still determined to continue on the long path towards modernizing its society and institutions, in order to consolidate and advance democratization and good governance as well as promote the role of civil society and respect for human rights.

Such reforms, subject to a national and large consensus, in a particularly participative approach, are in fact what characterize the Moroccan experience, in a period of deep changes and even violent revolutions in the MENA region. It is no coincidence that Morocco managed, in 2011, to successfully deepen the reforms, under the leadership of His Majesty the King Mohammed VI, with an active participation of representatives from all levels of society, and in answer to the popular aspirations.

Thus, a new Constitution was adopted by a popular referendum on July 1^st, 2011, and successfully fair general elections were held on November 25^th, 2011, that paved the way to the nomination of the actual coalition government.

It is in fact a new page opened within the reform and modernization process that, we are confident, will allow Morocco to strengthen its position among democratic countries, as an active full member of the Governing Council of the Community of Democracies.

In this context, Morocco is also aware of its role to stand by other countries in our MENA region and Africa, as much as possible, in their democratic transition and socio-economic development. That is why we are honored and determined to participate to the Community of Democracies’ Task force on Tunisia.

On another level, and as Non Permanent Member of the UN Security Council, Morocco has taken the lead to support change and transition in Libya, and actually spares no efforts in the quest to find a solution and put an end to the suffering of the civilian population in Syria.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

In the same way, and while encouraging all the working groups and the affiliated bodies of the organization, my country is willing to contribute to enrich the debate on main issues currently discussed by the Governing Council and the Working Groups, where Morocco is a member, and that are in conformity with the Moroccan public policies and concerns, such as:

–  Strengthening the role of civil society and the participative approach for

development and in fighting poverty,

–  Consolidating freedom of speech, gender equality and women’s rights,

–  Fighting extremism and transnational threats,

–  Promoting education for democracy and human rights,

– International, regional and sub-regional cooperation.

Furthermore, we commend the efforts and achievements of the Permanent Secretariat of our organization and support its initiatives for strengthening its role in order to make the Community of Democracies, its activities and noble objectives better known to the world.

My country also renews its support to the Steering Committee, representing the civil society component within our organization, and commends its action and contribution to enrich the debate about the best practices for the promotion of democracy in the world.

 

Thank you for your kind attention.