Hundreds of lawyers from bar associations across Morocco demonstrated outside parliament in Rabat on Monday against a proposed overhaul of the law governing the profession.
The Moroccan Bar Associations said the bill would weaken lawyers’ institutional independence, reduce organisational autonomy and undermine a social and mutual-aid system financed through members’ contributions.
Protesters also argued that the text could erode defence guarantees and affect the right to a fair trial, presenting the dispute as a broader rule-of-law issue rather than a conflict over professional interests.
Lawyers carried signs rejecting the bill and accused the government of drafting it unilaterally without securing agreement from representatives of the profession.
El Houssine Zayani, head of the Moroccan Bar Associations, told the rally that the protest was not a narrow corporate action but a defence of judicial independence and constitutional rights.
He said the core dispute concerned the government’s shift from a participatory reform process toward imposing its own vision.
Zayani also warned that weakening the national association representing Morocco’s bar associations would reduce the profession’s collective capacity to defend its independence and maintain unified representation.
The protest forms part of an escalating confrontation between lawyers and the government over the legislation, which is moving through parliament despite continued opposition from the profession.
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