Incivility in public spaces results in attacks on cleanliness.
Notice : The Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) has issued several recommendations aimed at promoting responsible and sustainable citizenship, including the launch of an integrated national project to promote citizenship in public spaces, backed by a national charter setting the rules of behavior to be respected in these spaces.
The Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) presented, Wednesday June 10 in Rabat, the conclusions of its opinion entitled: “Civic behavior in public spaces: towards strengthening citizenship values in the service of sustainable development”. In this opinion, the Council chose to focus on behaviors and practices directly observable in public spaces. The CESE has issued several recommendations aimed at promoting responsible and sustainable citizenship. The analysis presented highlights, in certain situations, the existence of incivility in public spaces, resulting in particular in attacks on cleanliness, damage to community facilities, risky behavior on the road, as well as occasional excesses in sports venues, particularly in contexts of high emotional tension. Several public initiatives have been undertaken to consolidate the anchoring of civic behavior, mobilizing in particular the education system and public media, as well as awareness-raising measures with a religious dimension and reintegration programs.
The Council considers that these public actions, sectorized and insufficiently articulated, do not promote a lasting anchoring of civic behavior, which requires a more in-depth understanding of the structural determinants of incivility. These result from a combination of emotional, organizational and socio-economic factors. They refer to developments in socialization processes, marked by the diversification of influences, particularly digital, which contribute to the recomposition of individual and collective benchmarks and behaviors. They also reflect social and territorial fragilities, linked to inequalities in access to resources and opportunities for social integration.
Added to this are institutional factors linked to the effectiveness of the application of established rules, the readability of collective standards and the capacity for local regulation. The EESC considers that good citizenship in public spaces constitutes an essential lever for social cohesion, collective trust and the consolidation of the rule of law. According to the Council, this framework should be based on three inseparable requirements: strengthening education and empowering citizens to respect the rules of citizenship in public spaces; the consolidation of the exemplary nature of institutions and public and private actors, through the continuous improvement of management practices, the quality of services and infrastructure; and strengthening the effectiveness of the application of rules in public spaces, in order to guarantee compliance and prevent uncivil behavior. The CESE has formulated a set of recommendations including the launch of an integrated national project to promote good citizenship in public spaces, based on a participatory approach and deployed at national and territorial levels, backed by a national charter setting the rules of behavior to be respected in these spaces.
The Council recommends the strict application, according to simplified procedures, of criminal provisions relating to minor offenses and offenses affecting public order and public peace, while ensuring the effective implementation of alternative penalties. It calls for the establishment of a unified normative framework for administrative sanctions relating to violations of good citizenship in public spaces, taking into account regional specificities and integrating alternative measures of an educational and restorative nature, such as works of general interest. Other important recommendations include the development and implementation of a national code of civic conduct in public services, consistent with the provisions of Law 54.19 relating to the public services charter.
This code will clarify the responsibilities of civil servants and users, harmonize service quality standards, and establish the exemplary role of public services in promoting good citizenship and the principles of good governance. The Council also proposes to explicitly integrate, into the reference framework of curricula, programs and textbooks, from preschool and at all components and all levels of the education and training system, activities aimed at the development of civic behavior, while ensuring their effective implementation through adapted educational approaches, in particular by strengthening extracurricular activities.
In this opinion, the EESC was particularly interested in the question of good citizenship in national and international sporting events. He calls for strengthening citizen behavior within sports venues, in order to guarantee safe, inclusive and quality events, and to make sport a real space for social cohesion and the influence of the Kingdom. To this end, the CESE has issued recommendations aimed at promoting among the public the values of respect, fair play and living together, strengthening prevention and mediation systems in and around stadiums, improving security, accessibility, development and management of sports infrastructures and mobilizing digital tools in order to anticipate risks, optimize flow management and strengthen the security of events.
