A large-scale popular march to celebrate Tafsut Imazighen—the Amazigh Spring—was scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 20, 2025, in the streets of Rabat, Morocco. Early in the morning, thousands of Amazigh women and men of all ages converged on the march's starting point, carrying Amazigh flags and banners bearing their demands.
At the same time, a large number of police officers and auxiliary riot police officers moved toward Bab El Hed Square, the starting point of the march, and surrounded the demonstrators, preventing them from leaving the square. The police verbally informed the organizers that the march through the streets of Rabat was unauthorized. However, all the administrative procedures required by law were completed within the deadline. Faced with the arbitrary action to prevent the march, the protesters attempted several times to break through the police blockade, but were violently repulsed by the police, resulting in a few injuries, fortunately without serious consequences.
For the Amazigh World Congress, the Moroccan authorities' refusal to allow the Amazigh people to exercise their fundamental right to peacefully demonstrate on public roads is a serious provocation and a violation of the Moroccan Constitution and international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Amazigh people, who are dispossessed of their history, language, land, and resources, are now prohibited even from speaking out and peacefully demonstrating. This is absolutely unacceptable.
While the Amazigh are brutally prevented from celebrating an important event in their history, the Moroccan capital and other cities in Morocco regularly host numerous and important demonstrations of the Islamist and pan-Arabist movement, with the support of the administration and public media and under the protection of the police. It is therefore clear that the bans only concern the Amazigh, the indigenous people of this country. The Moroccan government is thus demonstrating, once again, its racist practices against the Amazigh. In 2018, after her visit to Morocco, Ms. Achiume, UN Special Rapporteur, denounced "violations of the right to freedom of opinion, expression, assembly and the ban on demonstrations for the Amazigh." The Moroccan government is flouting national and international laws, demonstrating that it has learned nothing from its presidency of the Human Rights Council in 2024.
The CMA unreservedly denounces and condemns the ban on the Tafsut Imazighen march in Rabat on April 20, 2025. It also recalls that the commemoration of this historic event has been banned for several years in Algeria, particularly in Kabylia, where Tafsut Imazighen was born 45 years ago. International bodies responsible for human and peoples' rights are urged to sanction the Moroccan and Algerian governments for their acts of anti-Amazigh apartheid.
The CMA commends the wisdom of the Rabat protesters who refrained from responding violently to police provocation and commends them for their commitment to defending their rights and dignity. The CMA also welcomes the large-scale mobilization and resounding success of the Tafsut Imazighen march on the same day in Marrakech, thanks to the dedication of the organizers and the determination of thousands of demonstrators. Finally, the CMA extends its sincere compliments to the demonstrators from the Amazigh diaspora, particularly the Kabyles, who responded in large numbers to the call for remembrance and the spirit of resistance in France, Europe, and North America.
The CMA once again expresses its support and full solidarity with the Amazighs who are arbitrarily incarcerated in Algeria and Morocco and with all those who suffer from injustices and abuses of power committed by states. The Amazighs have no choice but to courageously continue their peaceful but determined struggle to put an end to the racism, discrimination, and dispossession they have suffered in all spheres for centuries.
Rabat, 04/08/2975 – 04/20/2025
The Board CMA