Il Mediterraneo e i conti con la storia. La violenza politica degli anni di piombo in Marocco e la giustizia di transizione.

Abstract

The essay examines the political phase which ended the “years of lead” in Morocco, 43 years of repression and state violence since the founding of the monarchy (1956-1999). It is based on official documents produced by the Instance of Equity and Reconciliation (IER), established in Morocco in 2004, and on recent historiography, the witness accounts, the voices of parties, associations, political expatriates (mainly active in France), and the most significant contributions from the Moroccan and the French press of the time. The theme of transitional justice involves some of the most relevant issues in the challenge between authoritarianism and democratic instances in the contemporary Mediterranean area: political violence and the respect for human rights, the functioning of the political systems and constitutional guarantees, the question of pluralism, political and social issues, and the democratic standard of international relations in the region. All this brings to light the political history of the local oppositions to Arab authoritarian regimes throughout the twentieth century (which is still too little known and explored). The transitional justice process carried out in Morocco is the first to be set up and completed in the whole Mediterranean area – not only Arab – and is therefore of considerable historiographic and political interest.