Rapport de Human Rights Watch
Maroc/Sahara occidental : Davantage de liberté dans le choix des prénoms des enfants
L'Etat reconnaît un nombre accru de noms amazighs (berbères) mais la liberté de choisir connaît toujours des limites
(New York, le 14 décembre 2010) - Une circulaire gouvernementale libéralisant la politique marocaine relative à la reconnaissance des noms amazighs, ou berbères, donnés aux nouveau-nés engendre des résultats positifs, a déclaré Human Rights Watch aujourd'hui.
En avril 2010, le ministère de l'Intérieur a émis une circulaire reconnaissant pour la première fois que les noms amazighs remplissent l'exigence légale de « caractère marocain ». Depuis, plusieurs activistes amazighs ont fait part à Human Rights Watch d'une baisse du nombre de plaintes émanant de citoyens s'étant vu refuser l'inscription d'un nom amazigh par un bureau local de l'état civil. Cependant, l'exigence générale selon laquelle les parents doivent choisir un nom considéré comme présentant un « caractère marocain » continue de limiter le choix des parents et d'opposer des obstacles administratifs, et elle devrait être assouplie, a déclaré Human Rights Watch.
« En reconnaissant explicitement les noms amazighs comme étant marocains, le gouvernement a assoupli une restriction nocive du droit des parents à choisir le nom de leurs enfants », a affirmé Sarah Leah Whitson, directrice de la division Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord à Human Rights Watch. « Cette initiative montre un respect et une reconnaissance accrus à l'égard de la population marocaine dans sa diversité ethnique et culturelle. »
Depuis quelques années, des membres de la population amazighe marocaine revendiquent de manière de plus en plus péremptoire la reconnaissance officielle de leur culture et de leur langue, le tamazight. L'État marocain a répondu à ces doléances en créant un Institut royal de la culture amazighe en 2001, et en proposant un enseignement dans les écoles primaires ainsi qu'en programmant des émissions à la télévision d'État en langue tamazight.
Cependant, le refus de l'État civil d'inscrire dans leurs registres de nombreux nouveau-nés auxquels les parents veulent donner un prénom amazigh reste un sujet délicat pour les activistes amazighs. Cela est d'autant plus vrai que la raison officielle invoquée pour justifier ce refus est que ces noms ne sont pas « marocains », contrairement aux noms arabo-musulmans acceptés, alors que les Amazighs constituent la population autochtone du Maroc, tandis que les Arabes y ont émigré il ya quelques siècles.
Tandis que la circulaire (daouriya en arabe) réaffirme que l'État civil ne peut accepter que les noms qui présentent un « caractère marocain », elle demande à ses officiers de « guider, convaincre, dialoguer et faire preuve de souplesse envers le citoyen » et « avant de refuser un nom, de faire des recherches et de mener des enquêtes, ainsi que de tenir compte des décisions de la Haute commission de l'État civil et des tribunaux ».
La Haute commission, qui se compose de l'historiographe du Royaume et de représentants des ministères de la Justice et de l'Intérieur, tranche sur la légalité des prénoms que l'État civil se refuse ou hésite à accepter. Par exemple, une liste de noms publiée par cette Commission indique que, lors de sa réunion du 24 juin 2005, le prénom amazigh « Sifaw » faisait partie de ceux qu'elle refusait, alors qu'elle acceptait « Mira », autre prénom amazigh.
La circulaire d'avril 2010
Le ministre de l'Intérieur a adressé sa circulaire D-3220, datée du 9 avril, aux autorités régionales, provinciales, locales et aux arrondissements, qui disposent tous d'un bureau de l'État civil, où les citoyens se rendent pour déclarer les naissances, décès et mariages.
La circulaire D-3220 interprète la loi régissant le choix et l'inscription des prénoms, à savoir la loi 37-99 de l'État civil, adoptée le 3 octobre 2002. En vertu de l'article 21 de ladite loi, le prénom choisi « doit présenter un caractère marocain et ne doit être ni un nom de famille ni un nom composé de plus de deux prénoms, ni un nom de ville, de village ou de tribu, comme il ne doit pas être de nature à porter atteinte aux bonnes mœurs ou à l'ordre public ».
La circulaire D-3220 fait référence au « droit des citoyens à choisir le nom de leurs enfants » et à la nécessité d'empêcher des violations de ce droit et d'« éviter les conflits qui pourraient éclater entre les officiers de l'état civil et les citoyens ».
Elle précise la procédure que doivent suivre les officiers de l'État civil lorsqu'un citoyen leur présente un nom méconnu. Par ailleurs, elle rend publique pour la première fois une définition officielle en deux parties de l'attribut « marocain » dans le contexte des prénoms.
La première partie de la définition est la suivante :
« Le caractère marocain désigne les caractéristiques de la société marocaine, du nord au sud et d'ouest en est. Le nom personnel doit être usité au Maroc au point d'y être fréquent ; autrement dit, à tel point que le port de ce nom est entré dans la coutume, et donc que le nom ne sonne étranger ni à l'oreille marocaine ni pour le milieu marocain, avec toutes ses parties constituantes. Il s'agit donc d'un nom répandu, tel que sa reconnaissance n'engendre aucun inconfort ni difficulté. »
La seconde partie précise que les prénoms doivent également se ranger dans l'une des cinq catégories suivantes :
(1) Noms arabes usités au Maroc depuis longtemps ;
(2) « Attributs d'Allah » (asmaa' Allah al-husna), à condition d'être précédés de « Abd » [« serviteur de »] et non pas juste de « el- » [par exemple, « Abd el-Karim mais pas « el-Karim »] ;
(3) Noms amazighs, dont la signification peut varier d'une région à une autre ;
(4) Noms devenus communs ces dernières années au Maroc, dont la prononciation en arabe est claire et dont les origines sont islamiques ; et
(5) Noms hébreux pour les Juifs marocains.
La circulaire fait également référence aux listes de prénoms existantes, dont beaucoup sont d'origine amazighe, et que la Haute commission de l'État civil avait approuvés ou rejetés avant la promulgation de la loi 37-99. La circulaire précise par ailleurs que les bureaux de l'état civil peuvent consulter ces listes de noms « acceptés et « refusés », mais que ces conclusions ne sont pas contraignantes.
Une résistance persistante de la part de l'administration : études de cas
Il n'existe pas de statistiques publiques sur la fréquence à laquelle les autorités marocaines empêchent des parents de déclarer leur nouveau-né sous le nom de leur choix. Cependant, d'après des données empiriques rassemblées auprès d'activistes des droits amazighs au Maroc, les entraves administratives à l'inscription de noms amazighs seraient moins nombreuses depuis l'adoption de la circulaire D-3220. Toutefois, même avant la publication de celle-ci par le ministère de l'Intérieur, les bureaux de l'État civil acceptaient certains noms amazighs, soit d'office, soit après que les parents avaient mené campagne ou fait appel du refus initial.
Human Rights Watch a fourni des détails sur le refus des noms amazighs dans une lettre adressée au ministère de l'Intérieur le 16 juin 2009, à laquelle le gouvernement n'a pas répondu.
Les enjeux relatifs à l'inscription d'un nom ne se limitent pas à l'expression personnelle ou culturelle. En effet, lorsque l'État civil refuse d'inscrire un nouveau-né au motif du nom qui lui a été donné, ce nouveau-né se retrouve sans statut juridique. Les parents peuvent alors avoir du mal à bénéficier de certains services publics, par exemple s'ils veulent obtenir un passeport pour leur enfant ou se faire rembourser des frais médicaux par les régimes publics d'assurance. Pour éviter ce genre de problèmes ainsi que des conflits avec l'administration, certains parents déclarent leur enfant sous un nom arabo-musulman au lieu du nom amazigh qu'ils préféreraient lui donner, comme l'ont expliqué plusieurs activistes amazighs à Human Rights Watch.
Bien que la circulaire D-3220 comprenne des noms amazighs pouvant être considérés comme présentant « un caractère marocain » et qu'elle ordonne aux officiers de l'État civil d'interagir de manière constructive avec les parents, elle maintient en vigueur plusieurs restrictions au droit des Marocains à choisir le nom de leurs enfants. En effet, les Marocains continuent de se voir opposer un refus si l'officier de l'État civil ne connaît pas le nom amazigh qu'ils ont choisi ou s'il considère qu'il est difficile à prononcer ou qu'il n'est pas assez connu. Cette situation se produit par exemple lorsqu'un nom est peu commun dans une région mais plus populaire dans d'autres.
Les administrateurs au niveau local continuent de remettre en question certains noms amazighs, comme l'indiquent plusieurs cas récents dont Human Rights Watch a pris connaissance. Si les requêtes des parents persistants semblent aboutir dans la plupart des cas, la procédure reste stressante et éprouvante pour les familles qui, pour exercer leur droit fondamental à donner un nom à leur enfant, se retrouvent contraintes de rassembler et soumettre des documents supplémentaires, de se rendre à plusieurs reprises dans les bureaux de l'administration, de demander le soutien d'organisations non gouvernementales, d'intenter une procédure au tribunal ou de lancer une campagne médiatique.
Exemples de noms refusés :
* Yuba (Agadir) : Le 21 octobre 2010, Mohamed Elouihyoui et son épouse, Rouqiya Bogarn, ont essayé de déclarer leur fils, né le 9 octobre, sous le nom de « Yuba » au bureau de l'État civil du quartier el-Houda d'Agadir, ville du sud du Maroc. Elouihyoui a affirmé que l'officier a refusé de donner suite à sa requête car ce nom n'est pas autorisé. Elouihyoui s'est rendu plusieurs fois dans ce bureau pendant la période de 30 jours au cours de laquelle les nouveau-nés peuvent être déclarés. Bien que le père ait invoqué la circulaire D-3220 et expliqué que Yuba était le nom d'un ancien roi amazigh, l'officier a persisté à refuser d'inscrire le nouveau-né sous ce nom. Les parents ont alors engagé la procédure requise pour inscrire le nom d'un nouveau-né une fois passé le délai de 30 jours. Au 8 décembre, Yuba n'avait toujours pas été déclaré, comme l'a affirmé son père à Human Rights Watch.
* Simane (Sidi Slimane) : Aziza Boulwiha, de Sidi Slimane, une ville au nord-est de Rabat, a accouché d'une fille le 12 novembre 2010. Trois jours plus tard, son époux, Marzou Salh, s'est rendu au bureau de l'État civil du premier arrondissement de la ville pour demander s'il était possible de déclarer un nouveau-né sous le nom amazigh de Simane, qui signifie « deux âmes ». L'officier lui a répondu que cela était impossible, Simane ne figurant pas sur une liste qu'il avait consultée, comme l'a raconté Salh à Human Rights Watch. Le père de l'enfant a alors soumis la circulaire D-3220 ainsi que des documents montrant des cas où le prénom Simane avait déjà été approuvé. Le 22 novembre, son épouse est allée inscrire l'enfant sous ce nom mais, à nouveau, l'officier de l'État civil a refusé, expliquant que Simane n'était pas un nom suffisamment commun. Il a proposé d'inscrire l'enfant sous le nom d'Imane - « foi » en arabe -, ce que les parents ont refusé. Salh a demandé à une organisation amazighe de prendre contact avec l'administration. Fin novembre, selon Salh, l'État civil a accepté d'inscrire le nom de Simane mais a fait signer au père une déclaration selon laquelle il assumait toutes les conséquences juridiques du choix de ce nom.
* Mazilia (Lille, France) : En juillet 2010, le consulat du Maroc à Lille, dans le nord de la France, a refusé à un émigré marocain, Lhoussain Azergui, de Roubaix, et à son épouse, Abda al-Kasri, ressortissante française, de déclarer leur fille, née le 10 décembre 2009, sous le nom de « Mazilia Tara ». Peu après la naissance de l'enfant, Azergui l'avait déclarée à l'état civil français. L'officier du consulat marocain a accepté « Tara », nom amazigh que ce même consulat avait rejeté en 2006 mais fini par approuver après que les parents de Tara eurent produit l'acte de naissance marocain d'une autre fillette appelée Tara. Cependant, l'officier a précisé à Azergui que « Mazilia » était un nom « refusé » sur une liste qu'il avait consultée.
Mazilia fait partie des onze noms classés « refusés » d'après une liste de 40 prénoms sur laquelle la Haute commission de l'État civil a statué lors d'une séance tenue le 5 juillet 2006. Cette liste est l'une de celles que le ministère de l'Intérieur a diffusées auprès des bureaux de l'État civil.
Azergui a affirmé à Human Rights Watch avoir adressé aux autorités marocaines une lettre de contestation restée sans réponse ; il n'a pas réessayé d'inscrire sa fille. Azergui et al-Kasri ont eu un problème similaire en tentant d'inscrire leur fille aînée, née le 6 mars 2007, sous le nom de Numidia Tin-Ass au consulat de Lille. L'officier, après avoir consulté une liste en présence d'Azergui, a accepté le prénom « Numidia » mais pas « Tin-Ass », promettant de l'accepter à condition qu'Azergui puisse montrer l'acte de naissance d'une autre Marocaine portant ce nom. En décembre 2007, Azergui et son épouse ont reçu une lettre du consulat marocain les invitant à déclarer leur fille sous la totalité du nom qu'ils avaient choisi.
Mazilia est le nom de la dynastie d'un ancien royaume amazigh.
* Simane (Kénitra) : Rafii Seddiq, de Kénitra, ville située au nord-est de Rabat, s'est rendu au bureau local de l'État civil deux semaines après la naissance de sa fille le 4 avril 2010. L'officier a refusé le nom, conseillant à Seddiq et à son épouse, Hind Jabari, de choisir un nom plus commun. Seddiq a déclaré à Human Rights Watch que Simane était un nom plus fréquent dans la région de Sousse, dans le Sud marocain, qu'au nord, où il réside actuellement. Quelques heures plus tard, Seddiq est retourné au bureau de l'État civil muni d'une copie de la circulaire D-3220 et a expliqué la signification du nom « Simane ». Cette fois-ci, l'officier a accepté que l'enfant soit déclaré sous ce nom.
* Massilya (Témara) : Une semaine après la naissance de sa fille le 3 novembre 2010, Jamal Eddarhor s'est rendu au bureau de l'État civil de Témara, un faubourg de Rabat, pour la déclarer sous le nom de « Massilya », choisi par lui et son épouse, Samira Heri. Ce nom amazigh ancien et peu commun désigne la « déesse de la mer ». L'officier a répondu qu'il ne savait pas si le nom était acceptable et a demandé aux parents d'en choisir un autre. Devant le refus d'Eddarhor, l'officier l'a prié de voir avec la préfecture de Témara si le nom pouvait être inscrit. La préfecture a déclaré qu'elle ne pouvait trancher mais a proposé au père de l'enfant de soumettre sa requête par écrit à l'État civil, ce que les parents ont fait. Ils ont reçu une réponse favorable au bout de trois jours et ont inscrit leur fille sous le nom de leur choix le 29 novembre.
Le droit international soutient le droit des parents
La circulaire D-3220 précise que l'objectif de l'exigence de « caractère marocain » est de « préserver notre identité marocaine, notre authenticité et nos traditions fondées sur une base solide ».
Mais cet objectif ne justifie pas de manière adéquate que l'on porte atteinte à la liberté des parents de donner à leurs enfants le nom de leur choix, a déclaré Human Rights Watch, notant que nombre des noms en question constituent une expression de l'identité ethnique ou culturelle des parents.
Les droits à l'expression individuelle et culturelle reconnus à l'échelle internationale, ainsi que le droit à la vie privée, et le devoir des États de respecter les droits des minorités, limitent à des circonstances exceptionnelles et étroitement définies le pouvoir qu'ont les États de refuser des noms.
En 1994, dans l'affaire Coeriel et Aurik c. Pays-Bas, le comité pour les Droits de l'homme des Nations Unies a ainsi statué :
« L'article 17 [du Pacte international sur les droits civils et politiques (PIDCP)] prévoit notamment que nul ne sera l'objet d'immixtion arbitraire ou illégale dans sa vie privée, sa famille, son domicile ou sa correspondance. Le Comité considère que la notion de vie privée renvoie au domaine de la vie de l'individu où il peut exprimer librement son identité [...]. [Cela] comprend la protection contre les immixtions arbitraires ou illégales dans l'exercice du droit de choisir son nom et d'en changer. » [Mise en évidence ajoutée]
Une décision de 2010 prise par le même comité dans l'affaire Raihman c. Lettonie a précisé que l'imposition d'un « nom à consonance lettone » à un membre de la minorité juive russe dans ce pays constituait un manquement au Pacte. Qui plus est, l'article 27 du PIDCP précise : « Dans les Eats où il existe des minorités ethniques, religieuses ou linguistiques, les personnes appartenant à ces minorités ne peuvent être privées du droit d'avoir, en commun avec les autres membres de leur groupe, leur propre vie culturelle [...]. » En vertu de l'article 27, ce droit s'étend à la liberté de donner à ses propres enfants un nom minoritaire.
« Le Maroc devrait réformer sa loi afin de limiter strictement le rôle que joue le gouvernement en matière de réglementation des noms », a ajouté Sarah Leah Whitson. « À moins qu'un prénom ne soit manifestement offensif ou choquant, ou porte atteinte aux intérêts de l'enfant, il n'y a aucune justification à ce que les autorités restreignent la liberté des parents à pouvoir faire ce choix personnel. »
Version anglaise :http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/12/14/moroccowestern-sahara-more-freedom-name-their-children
dimanche 19 décembre 2010
mercredi 15 décembre 2010
interdiction des prénoms amazighs au Maroc : réaction de HRW
Morocco/Western Sahara: More Freedom to Name Their Children
State Recognizing More Amazigh, or Berber Names, but Choice Still Restricted
December 14, 2010
(New York) - A government directive liberalizing Morocco's policy on recognizing Amazigh, or Berber, given names for newborns is having positive results, Human Rights Watch said today.
In April 2010, the Ministry of Interior issued a directive that for the first time defined Amazigh names as meeting the legal prerequisite of being "Moroccan in nature." In the eight months since, there have been fewer complaints from citizens that local bureaus of the Civil Registry have refused to register Amazigh given names, several Amazigh rights activists told Human Rights Watch. However, the general requirement that parents choose names that are deemed "Moroccan in nature" continues to limit parents' choices and create administrative obstacles and should be eased, Human Rights Watch said.
"By explicitly recognizing Amazigh names as Moroccan, the government has eased a noxious restriction on the right of parents to choose their children's names," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "This move shows greater respect and recognition for Morocco's ethnically and culturally diverse population."
Some members of Morocco's Amazigh population have in recent years grown increasingly assertive in demanding official recognition of their culture and Tamazight language. The Moroccan state responded by creating a Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture in 2001 and initiating elementary school instruction and programs on state television in Tamazight.
However, the Civil Registry's refusal to register many newborns whose parents had given them Amazigh first names remained a sore point for Amazigh activists. This was all the more true since the ostensible grounds for the rejection was that these names were not "Moroccan," in contrast to accepted Arab-Islamic names, even though the Amazigh are indigenous to the country while Arabs migrated to it centuries ago.
While the directive (circulaire in French, daouriya in Arabic) reaffirms that the Civil Registry may accept only names that are "Moroccan in character," it instructs clerks of the agency to "guide, convince, dialogue and show flexibility toward the citizenry," and, "before refusing a name, research and investigate and take into consideration the decisions by the High Commission of the Civil Registry and the courts."
The High Commission, consisting of the kingdom's official historian and representatives of the Justice and Interior Ministries, rules on the legality of those first names that the Civil Registry has refused or hesitated to accept. For example, a list of names issued by the Commission shows that in its meeting on June 24, 2005, the Amazigh name "Sifaw" was among those it rejected and the Amazigh name "Mira" among those it accepted.
The April 2010 Directive
The Interior Ministry sent its Directive D-3220, dated April 9, to regional, provincial, local, and district governments, all of which house branches of the Civil Registry, where citizens register births, deaths, and marriages.
Directive D-3220 interprets the law that governs the choice and registration of first names, Law 37-99 on the Civil Registry, adopted on October 3, 2002. Article 21 of that law requires that a given name have "a Moroccan character and must be neither a name of a family nor a name composed of more than two first names, nor the name of a city, village or tribe, and must not constitute an affront to good morals or the public order."
Directive D-3220 refers to "the right of citizens in choosing names for their children" and the need to prevent violations of that right and to "avert conflicts that might occur between clerks at the Civil Registry and citizens."
The directive elaborates on the procedures that the Civil Registry should follow when confronted with an unfamiliar name. It also makes public for the first time a two-part official definition of "Moroccan" as it relates to given names. The first part of the definition says:
Moroccan in character means the characteristics of the Moroccan society, from its north to its south and from its west to its east. The personal name has to be in use in Morocco to the point where it has become frequent; that is, to the point where holding that name has entered into custom, so the name sounds foreign neither to the Moroccan ear nor to the Moroccan milieu, with all its constituent parts. It is, thus, a name that is widespread, to the point that there is no discomfort or difficulty in recognizing it.
The second part says that given names must also come from one of the following five categories:
(1) Arab names that have been used in Morocco for a long time;
(2) "Attributes of Allah" (asmaa' Allah al-husna), as long as they are preceded by "‘Abd" [meaning "servant of"] and not just by "el-" [for example, ‘Abd el-Karim but not el-Karim];
(3) Amazigh names, whose meaning might vary from one region to another;
(4) Names that have become common in recent years in Morocco and whose pronunciation in Arabic is clear and origins are Islamic; and
(5) Hebrew names for Moroccan Jews.
The directive also refers to existing lists of first names, many of them Amazigh in origin, that the High Commission of the Civil Registry had approved or rejected prior to the promulgation of Law 37-99. The directive states that civil registries may consult those lists, with their "approved" and "refused" names, but that these determinations are not legally binding.
Continuing Administrative Resistance: Case Studies
There are no publicly available statistics on the frequency with which Moroccan authorities have prevented parents from registering the given name of their choice. However, anecdotal evidence collected from Amazigh rights activists in Morocco suggests that administrative obstacles to the recording of Amazigh names were more frequent prior to the issuance of directive D-3220. But even before the Ministry of Interior issued the directive, Civil Registry bureaus accepted some Amazigh names, either right away or after the parents campaigned against or appealed their initial rejection.
Human Rights Watch documented the rejection of Amazigh names in a letter sent to the Interior Ministry on June 16, 2009, to which the government did not reply.
The stakes surrounding the registration of a name are not limited to personal or cultural expression. When the Civil Registry refuses to register an infant because of an objection to his or her given name, that infant is without legal status. The parents may face obstacles in getting public services, such as when applying for a passport for the child or seeking reimbursement for medical costs from state insurance plans. To avoid such problems as well as conflicts with the administration, some parents register an Arab-Islamic name rather than the Amazigh name they would otherwise choose, several Amazigh activists told Human Rights Watch.
While Directive D-3220 includes Amazigh names among those that may be considered "Moroccan in character" and instructs Civil Registry personnel to interact constructively with parents, the directive maintains a number of restrictions on the right of Moroccans to choose names for their children. They still face rejection if the clerk at the local Civil Registry bureau is unfamiliar with the Amazigh name they have chosen, or considers it difficult to pronounce or insufficiently familiar. This has occurred, for example, when a name is uncommon in one region but more popular in others.
Administrators at the local level continue to challenge some Amazigh names, as shown by a number of recent cases described to Human Rights Watch. While parents who persist seem to succeed in most cases, the procedure remains stressful and burdensome for families who, to exercise the basic right of naming their child, find themselves called upon to collect and submit additional documentation, make extra visits to the administration, enlist the support of nongovernmental organizations, or initiate a court case or media campaign.
Examples of names that were refused:
* Yuba (Agadir): On October 21, 2010, Mohamed Elouihyoui and his wife, Rouqiya Bogarn, tried to register the name "Yuba" for their son, born October 9, at the Civil Registry in the el-Houda neighborhood of the southern city of Agadir. Elouihyoui said that the clerk on duty refused on the grounds that it was not a permitted name. Elouihyoui returned more than once during the 30-day period for registering a newborn. Although he invoked Directive D-3220 and explained that Yuba is the name of an ancient Amazigh king, the clerk persisted in refusing to register the baby under that name. The parents have initiated the judicial procedure necessary to register a newborn's name once the 30-day period has passed. As of December 8, Yuba remains unregistered, his father told Human Rights Watch.
* Simane (Sidi Slimane): Aziza Boulwiha, from the city of Sidi Slimane, northeast of Rabat, gave birth to a girl on November 12, 2010. Three days later, her husband, Marzou Salh, visited the Civil Registry in the city's first arrondissement to inquire if he could register a newborn under the Amazigh name Simane, which means "two souls." The clerk said no since Simane did not appear on a list he had consulted, Salh told Human Rights Watch. The father said he then submitted Directive D-3220 along with documents showing earlier cases where Simane had been approved. On November 22, his wife went to register the name, but the Civil Registry again refused, explaining that Simane was not a sufficiently common name. The clerk proposed instead the name "Imane" - faith in Arabic - but the parents refused. Salh enlisted an Amazigh organization to contact the administration. In late November, according to Salh, the Civil Registry agreed to register Simane but also had him sign a statement that he assumed all the legal consequences of choosing this name.
* Mazilia (Lille, France): The Moroccan consulate in Lille, northern France, refused in July 2010 to allow a Moroccan émigré, Lhoussain Azergui of Roubaix, and his wife, Abda al-Kasri, a French citizen, to register the name "Mazilia Tara" for their daugher who was born December 10, 2009. Shortly after the baby's birth Azergui had registered her at the French civil registry. The official at the Moroccan consulate accepted "Tara," an Amazigh name that the same consulate had first rejected in 2006 but later accepted after Tara's parents produced the Moroccan registration document of another girl named "Tara." However, the official told Azergui that "Mazilia" was shown as a name that was "refused" on a list he had consulted.
Mazilia is one of 11 names marked as "refused" from a list of 40 given names that the High Committee on the Civil Registry ruled on during a session on July 5, 2006. That list is among those that the Interior Ministry circulated to Civil Registry bureaus.
Azergui told Human Rights Watch that he wrote a letter of protest to Moroccan authorities but has not heard back, and has not tried again to register his daughter. Azergui and al-Kasri had a similar problem when they tried to register their older daughter, Numidia Tin-Ass, on March 6, 2007, at the consulate in Lille. The clerk on duty, after consulting a list in Azergui's presence, accepted "Numidia" but not "Tin-Ass," promising to accept the latter if Azergui could produce the birth certificate of another Moroccan girl with this name. In December of that year, Azergui and his wife received a letter from the Moroccan consulate inviting him to register their daughter under the full name they had chosen.
Mazilia is the name of a dynasty of an ancient Amazigh kingdom.
* Simane (Kenitra): Rafii Seddiq of Kenitra, a city northeast of Rabat, went to a local bureau of the Civil Registry two weeks after the birth of his daughter on April 4, 2010. The clerk on duty refused the name and advised Seddiq and his wife, Hind Jabari, to choose a more common name. Seddiq told Human Rights Watch that Simane is more common in the Sousse region in southern Morocco than in the northern region, where he currently resides. Later the same day, Seddiq returned to the Civil Registry, brandishing a copy of Directive D-3220, and explained the meaning of "Simane." This time, the clerk registered the name.
* Massilya (Témara): One week after the birth of his daughter on November 3, 2010, Jamal Eddarhor went to the civil registry in Témara, a Rabat suburb, to register her as "Massilya," the name chosen by him and his wife, Samira Heri. This ancient and uncommon Amazigh name means "goddess of the sea." The clerk on duty responded that he did not know whether the name was acceptable and asked the parents to choose another. When Eddarhor refused, the clerk asked him to check with the préfecture of Temara to see whether the name could be registered. The préfecture said they could not respond but proposed that he submit his request in writing to the Civil Registry. The parents complied and received a favorable reply three days later. They registered their daughter's name on November 29.
International Law Supports Parents' Right
The purpose of requiring a "Moroccan character," Directive D-3220 states, is "to preserve our Moroccan identity, our authenticity, and our traditions that are founded on a firm basis."
But such an objective does not an constitute an adequate justification for infringing on the freedom of parents to name their children as they choose, Human Rights Watch said, noting that many of the names that are challenged constitute an expression of the parents' ethnic or cultural identity.
The internationally recognized rights to individual and cultural expression, as well as the right to privacy, and the duty of states to respect the rights of minorities, limit the power of the state to refuse names to exceptional and narrowly defined circumstances.
In the 1994 case of Coeriel et al v Netherlands, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled:
Article 17 [of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)] provides, inter alia, that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence. The Committee considers that the notion of privacy refers to the sphere of a person's life in which he or she can freely express his or her identity.... [This] includes the protection against arbitrary or unlawful interference with the right to choose and change one's own name. [emphasis added].
A 2010 ruling by the same Committee in Raihman v Latvia stated that the imposition of a "Latvian-sounding name" on a member of the Russian Jewish minority in that country was a violation of the Covenant. Moreover, the ICCPR's article 27 states, "In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of the group, to enjoy their own culture..." This right under article 27 extends to the freedom of choice when naming one's own children with minority names.
"Morocco should reform its law to limit strictly the government's role in the name-regulating business," Whitson said. "Unless a first name is patently offensive or objectionable or harmful to the interests of the child, authorities have no business curbing the right of parents to make this very personal choice."
Lien : http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/12/14/moroccowestern-sahara-more-freedom-name-their-children
State Recognizing More Amazigh, or Berber Names, but Choice Still Restricted
December 14, 2010
(New York) - A government directive liberalizing Morocco's policy on recognizing Amazigh, or Berber, given names for newborns is having positive results, Human Rights Watch said today.
In April 2010, the Ministry of Interior issued a directive that for the first time defined Amazigh names as meeting the legal prerequisite of being "Moroccan in nature." In the eight months since, there have been fewer complaints from citizens that local bureaus of the Civil Registry have refused to register Amazigh given names, several Amazigh rights activists told Human Rights Watch. However, the general requirement that parents choose names that are deemed "Moroccan in nature" continues to limit parents' choices and create administrative obstacles and should be eased, Human Rights Watch said.
"By explicitly recognizing Amazigh names as Moroccan, the government has eased a noxious restriction on the right of parents to choose their children's names," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "This move shows greater respect and recognition for Morocco's ethnically and culturally diverse population."
Some members of Morocco's Amazigh population have in recent years grown increasingly assertive in demanding official recognition of their culture and Tamazight language. The Moroccan state responded by creating a Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture in 2001 and initiating elementary school instruction and programs on state television in Tamazight.
However, the Civil Registry's refusal to register many newborns whose parents had given them Amazigh first names remained a sore point for Amazigh activists. This was all the more true since the ostensible grounds for the rejection was that these names were not "Moroccan," in contrast to accepted Arab-Islamic names, even though the Amazigh are indigenous to the country while Arabs migrated to it centuries ago.
While the directive (circulaire in French, daouriya in Arabic) reaffirms that the Civil Registry may accept only names that are "Moroccan in character," it instructs clerks of the agency to "guide, convince, dialogue and show flexibility toward the citizenry," and, "before refusing a name, research and investigate and take into consideration the decisions by the High Commission of the Civil Registry and the courts."
The High Commission, consisting of the kingdom's official historian and representatives of the Justice and Interior Ministries, rules on the legality of those first names that the Civil Registry has refused or hesitated to accept. For example, a list of names issued by the Commission shows that in its meeting on June 24, 2005, the Amazigh name "Sifaw" was among those it rejected and the Amazigh name "Mira" among those it accepted.
The April 2010 Directive
The Interior Ministry sent its Directive D-3220, dated April 9, to regional, provincial, local, and district governments, all of which house branches of the Civil Registry, where citizens register births, deaths, and marriages.
Directive D-3220 interprets the law that governs the choice and registration of first names, Law 37-99 on the Civil Registry, adopted on October 3, 2002. Article 21 of that law requires that a given name have "a Moroccan character and must be neither a name of a family nor a name composed of more than two first names, nor the name of a city, village or tribe, and must not constitute an affront to good morals or the public order."
Directive D-3220 refers to "the right of citizens in choosing names for their children" and the need to prevent violations of that right and to "avert conflicts that might occur between clerks at the Civil Registry and citizens."
The directive elaborates on the procedures that the Civil Registry should follow when confronted with an unfamiliar name. It also makes public for the first time a two-part official definition of "Moroccan" as it relates to given names. The first part of the definition says:
Moroccan in character means the characteristics of the Moroccan society, from its north to its south and from its west to its east. The personal name has to be in use in Morocco to the point where it has become frequent; that is, to the point where holding that name has entered into custom, so the name sounds foreign neither to the Moroccan ear nor to the Moroccan milieu, with all its constituent parts. It is, thus, a name that is widespread, to the point that there is no discomfort or difficulty in recognizing it.
The second part says that given names must also come from one of the following five categories:
(1) Arab names that have been used in Morocco for a long time;
(2) "Attributes of Allah" (asmaa' Allah al-husna), as long as they are preceded by "‘Abd" [meaning "servant of"] and not just by "el-" [for example, ‘Abd el-Karim but not el-Karim];
(3) Amazigh names, whose meaning might vary from one region to another;
(4) Names that have become common in recent years in Morocco and whose pronunciation in Arabic is clear and origins are Islamic; and
(5) Hebrew names for Moroccan Jews.
The directive also refers to existing lists of first names, many of them Amazigh in origin, that the High Commission of the Civil Registry had approved or rejected prior to the promulgation of Law 37-99. The directive states that civil registries may consult those lists, with their "approved" and "refused" names, but that these determinations are not legally binding.
Continuing Administrative Resistance: Case Studies
There are no publicly available statistics on the frequency with which Moroccan authorities have prevented parents from registering the given name of their choice. However, anecdotal evidence collected from Amazigh rights activists in Morocco suggests that administrative obstacles to the recording of Amazigh names were more frequent prior to the issuance of directive D-3220. But even before the Ministry of Interior issued the directive, Civil Registry bureaus accepted some Amazigh names, either right away or after the parents campaigned against or appealed their initial rejection.
Human Rights Watch documented the rejection of Amazigh names in a letter sent to the Interior Ministry on June 16, 2009, to which the government did not reply.
The stakes surrounding the registration of a name are not limited to personal or cultural expression. When the Civil Registry refuses to register an infant because of an objection to his or her given name, that infant is without legal status. The parents may face obstacles in getting public services, such as when applying for a passport for the child or seeking reimbursement for medical costs from state insurance plans. To avoid such problems as well as conflicts with the administration, some parents register an Arab-Islamic name rather than the Amazigh name they would otherwise choose, several Amazigh activists told Human Rights Watch.
While Directive D-3220 includes Amazigh names among those that may be considered "Moroccan in character" and instructs Civil Registry personnel to interact constructively with parents, the directive maintains a number of restrictions on the right of Moroccans to choose names for their children. They still face rejection if the clerk at the local Civil Registry bureau is unfamiliar with the Amazigh name they have chosen, or considers it difficult to pronounce or insufficiently familiar. This has occurred, for example, when a name is uncommon in one region but more popular in others.
Administrators at the local level continue to challenge some Amazigh names, as shown by a number of recent cases described to Human Rights Watch. While parents who persist seem to succeed in most cases, the procedure remains stressful and burdensome for families who, to exercise the basic right of naming their child, find themselves called upon to collect and submit additional documentation, make extra visits to the administration, enlist the support of nongovernmental organizations, or initiate a court case or media campaign.
Examples of names that were refused:
* Yuba (Agadir): On October 21, 2010, Mohamed Elouihyoui and his wife, Rouqiya Bogarn, tried to register the name "Yuba" for their son, born October 9, at the Civil Registry in the el-Houda neighborhood of the southern city of Agadir. Elouihyoui said that the clerk on duty refused on the grounds that it was not a permitted name. Elouihyoui returned more than once during the 30-day period for registering a newborn. Although he invoked Directive D-3220 and explained that Yuba is the name of an ancient Amazigh king, the clerk persisted in refusing to register the baby under that name. The parents have initiated the judicial procedure necessary to register a newborn's name once the 30-day period has passed. As of December 8, Yuba remains unregistered, his father told Human Rights Watch.
* Simane (Sidi Slimane): Aziza Boulwiha, from the city of Sidi Slimane, northeast of Rabat, gave birth to a girl on November 12, 2010. Three days later, her husband, Marzou Salh, visited the Civil Registry in the city's first arrondissement to inquire if he could register a newborn under the Amazigh name Simane, which means "two souls." The clerk said no since Simane did not appear on a list he had consulted, Salh told Human Rights Watch. The father said he then submitted Directive D-3220 along with documents showing earlier cases where Simane had been approved. On November 22, his wife went to register the name, but the Civil Registry again refused, explaining that Simane was not a sufficiently common name. The clerk proposed instead the name "Imane" - faith in Arabic - but the parents refused. Salh enlisted an Amazigh organization to contact the administration. In late November, according to Salh, the Civil Registry agreed to register Simane but also had him sign a statement that he assumed all the legal consequences of choosing this name.
* Mazilia (Lille, France): The Moroccan consulate in Lille, northern France, refused in July 2010 to allow a Moroccan émigré, Lhoussain Azergui of Roubaix, and his wife, Abda al-Kasri, a French citizen, to register the name "Mazilia Tara" for their daugher who was born December 10, 2009. Shortly after the baby's birth Azergui had registered her at the French civil registry. The official at the Moroccan consulate accepted "Tara," an Amazigh name that the same consulate had first rejected in 2006 but later accepted after Tara's parents produced the Moroccan registration document of another girl named "Tara." However, the official told Azergui that "Mazilia" was shown as a name that was "refused" on a list he had consulted.
Mazilia is one of 11 names marked as "refused" from a list of 40 given names that the High Committee on the Civil Registry ruled on during a session on July 5, 2006. That list is among those that the Interior Ministry circulated to Civil Registry bureaus.
Azergui told Human Rights Watch that he wrote a letter of protest to Moroccan authorities but has not heard back, and has not tried again to register his daughter. Azergui and al-Kasri had a similar problem when they tried to register their older daughter, Numidia Tin-Ass, on March 6, 2007, at the consulate in Lille. The clerk on duty, after consulting a list in Azergui's presence, accepted "Numidia" but not "Tin-Ass," promising to accept the latter if Azergui could produce the birth certificate of another Moroccan girl with this name. In December of that year, Azergui and his wife received a letter from the Moroccan consulate inviting him to register their daughter under the full name they had chosen.
Mazilia is the name of a dynasty of an ancient Amazigh kingdom.
* Simane (Kenitra): Rafii Seddiq of Kenitra, a city northeast of Rabat, went to a local bureau of the Civil Registry two weeks after the birth of his daughter on April 4, 2010. The clerk on duty refused the name and advised Seddiq and his wife, Hind Jabari, to choose a more common name. Seddiq told Human Rights Watch that Simane is more common in the Sousse region in southern Morocco than in the northern region, where he currently resides. Later the same day, Seddiq returned to the Civil Registry, brandishing a copy of Directive D-3220, and explained the meaning of "Simane." This time, the clerk registered the name.
* Massilya (Témara): One week after the birth of his daughter on November 3, 2010, Jamal Eddarhor went to the civil registry in Témara, a Rabat suburb, to register her as "Massilya," the name chosen by him and his wife, Samira Heri. This ancient and uncommon Amazigh name means "goddess of the sea." The clerk on duty responded that he did not know whether the name was acceptable and asked the parents to choose another. When Eddarhor refused, the clerk asked him to check with the préfecture of Temara to see whether the name could be registered. The préfecture said they could not respond but proposed that he submit his request in writing to the Civil Registry. The parents complied and received a favorable reply three days later. They registered their daughter's name on November 29.
International Law Supports Parents' Right
The purpose of requiring a "Moroccan character," Directive D-3220 states, is "to preserve our Moroccan identity, our authenticity, and our traditions that are founded on a firm basis."
But such an objective does not an constitute an adequate justification for infringing on the freedom of parents to name their children as they choose, Human Rights Watch said, noting that many of the names that are challenged constitute an expression of the parents' ethnic or cultural identity.
The internationally recognized rights to individual and cultural expression, as well as the right to privacy, and the duty of states to respect the rights of minorities, limit the power of the state to refuse names to exceptional and narrowly defined circumstances.
In the 1994 case of Coeriel et al v Netherlands, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled:
Article 17 [of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)] provides, inter alia, that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence. The Committee considers that the notion of privacy refers to the sphere of a person's life in which he or she can freely express his or her identity.... [This] includes the protection against arbitrary or unlawful interference with the right to choose and change one's own name. [emphasis added].
A 2010 ruling by the same Committee in Raihman v Latvia stated that the imposition of a "Latvian-sounding name" on a member of the Russian Jewish minority in that country was a violation of the Covenant. Moreover, the ICCPR's article 27 states, "In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of the group, to enjoy their own culture..." This right under article 27 extends to the freedom of choice when naming one's own children with minority names.
"Morocco should reform its law to limit strictly the government's role in the name-regulating business," Whitson said. "Unless a first name is patently offensive or objectionable or harmful to the interests of the child, authorities have no business curbing the right of parents to make this very personal choice."
Lien : http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/12/14/moroccowestern-sahara-more-freedom-name-their-children
mardi 2 novembre 2010
Et si on interdit les prénoms "Mohamed" et "Fatima" ?
Le consulat du Maroc à Lille a récemment refusé l'inscription des prénoms amazighs "Tunaruz" et "Tilila". Le motif : Ces prénoms ne figurent pas sur la liste des prénoms "autorisés". Ils s'ajoutent à celui de "Mazilia" toujours interdit par ce même consulat.
vendredi 16 juillet 2010
Mazilia, nouveau prénom interdit
Le consulat du Maroc à Lille a refusé ce matin (16 juillet) d'inscrire le prénom amazigh que j'ai choisi à ma fille, à savoir Mazilia Tara, née à Lille le 10 décembre 2009.
Si "Tara" est acceptée, "Mazilia" par contre a été interdit. Le motif : le prénom ne figure par sur la liste des prénoms autorisés par la monarchie marocaine.
Je rappelle que je n'ai aucune intention de changer le prénom de ma fille déjà enregistrée à la mairie.
Le combat continue ...
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