TRANSCRIPT OF CONVOCATION HONORING KING MOHAMMED VI OF MOROCCO

Below is a transcript of a June 22, 2000 convocation at The George Washington University, where His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, was presented with an honorary doctorate of law degree by GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. The remarks of both President Trachtenberg and King Mohommed are transcribed below

PRESIDENT TRACHTENBERG: Thank you. My friends, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Permit me to add my own welcome to those that have already been offered.

First, to His Majesty, King Mohammed VI, thank you for joining us here today. You honor us with your presence. Next, a welcome to the royal party traveling with His Majesty, including Her Royal Highness Lalamariam, the sister of King Mohammed VI, and her children.

Let me also offer a welcome to the many ambassadors and members of the Diplomatic Corps who join us today, including most especially the Moroccan Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Abdullah El Marufi, the Moroccan Ambassador to the United Nations, Abu Salem Jidi, and the United States Ambassador to Morocco, Hon. Ed Gabriel. Thank you all for being here.

Today's ceremony for His Majesty is the high point of the working relationship that was established between the George Washington University and El Ahawan University in Ifran, Morocco, some 2 years ago, and I am pleased to see that President Ben Mochtor has joined us here today. Good to see you, Mr. President.

The cooperative relationship between the two universities has provided scholarships so far to nine George Washington University students to study North African language, politics, and culture in Morocco, while simultaneously providing for an exchange agreement that brings Moroccan students to study at George Washington University.

It is in the spirit of cooperation and friendship symbolized by this university-to-university agreement that we present the honorary degree to His Majesty, but I would be remiss if I did not point out that today's ceremony is also a family event for very special reasons.

In 1957, Mohammed V, the grandfather of His Majesty, was awarded an honorary degree by the George Washington University. We are delighted to continue this family tradition today.

May I ask the vice president for academic affairs, Dr. Donald R. Layman, to escort His Majesty to the podium for the presentation of the degree, and permit me to read from the citation that accompanies the honorary doctorate:

Royalty in our current age has been given a task that is as difficult as it is delicate. Caught between history and legacy, respectful of the weight of tradition, but keenly aware of the demands of modern life, a sovereign is poised to live at the dazzling summit of human achievement while struggling to solve some very mundane problems.

Your Majesty, Mohammed VI, you have reassured the traditionalists and encouraged the modernists. In short, you addressed your own invitation to destiny by demonstrating that you are the very image of a modern, major monarch.

Mohammed Ben El Hassan El Aloui was born in Rabat on August 21, 1963. In June 1973, His Majesty successfully obtained the primary education certificate and continued his secondary studies at the Royal College, where he earned his baccalaureate degree in 1981.

In 1985, His Majesty obtained his degree in law at the faculty of law and economics in Rabat. He conducted his research project on the Arab African Union, and the strategy of Morocco in matters of international relations.

In July 1988, His Majesty obtained his doctoral degree in public law. Six months later, in November 1988, His Majesty started a 6-month training program at the European Commission in Brussels. Instructed by his father, the late King Hassan II, to succeed him, His Majesty traveled widely on diplomatic missions for his country and was appointed by his father as coordinator of the offices and services of the Royal Armed Forces. He also became involved in public affairs, mainly in social issues such as providing direct support to the poor and advocating an open Government.

On July 30, 1999, His Majesty was enthroned as King of Morocco following the death of his father 1 week earlier. Since then, His Majesty has undertaken a variety of popular public initiatives in the areas of health care and education. He has also undertaken an initiative to improve the status of women in Morocco.

In the long history of the human race, only a very few people have ever been given the opportunity to have a direct influence on the lives and well-being of their fellow men and women. You, Mohammed VI, are one of those rare people, and you have placed your abundant talents at the service of your people.

For all the foregoing, the George Washington University hereby confers the degree of doctor of laws upon Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, with all the rights, duties, and privileges pertaining thereto.

(Applause.)

KING MOHAMMED VI: Mr. President, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. It is a real pleasure for me to speak to you from within the walls of this great institution, George Washington University. I should like to express my deep gratitude for the honor conferred on me today, and tell you how touched I am by your kindness.

I am sure that among the eminent personalities present, representing the world of political and diplomatic strategies, finance, and economics, science, and culture, there are numerous friends of the Kingdom of Morocco. In greeting them, I express the wish that beyond political affiliations their number will increase, enhancing the excellence of this relationship that has existed between our two nations for more than two centuries.

The Moroccan-American friendship, which is rooted in your history, has never diminished, be it in time of war or peace. It held firm during the Cold War and, far from being the result of a fleeting conjecture, or of an act of self-interest, it has always been stimulated by the most cherished human values, liberty, justice, and solidarity.

Mr. President, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, ever since by the Will of God I succeeded my venerated father, his Majesty, King Hassan II, may God rest his soul, to preside over the destiny of my country, the art of ruling as well as the ethics underlying it are central to my thoughts.

I have done my utmost to expand the scope of democracy, consolidate the state of law, believe and invest in the dignity of every citizen, reform the structures of the State, and lay the foundation for human development, one that is both durable and equitably shared among individuals, groups, cities, regions, and provinces.

This is an inspiring task, for God willed that the Moroccan people be loyal and hardworking, respectful of their constitutional institutions, tolerant and convivial in cultivating the best relations with the divine revealed religions.

As our common history has proven, the Moroccan people, faithful in friendship, will always show gratitude to those who help them to fulfill their potential through a quality partnership where mutual benefit will rival the durability of a contract of honor and trust.

I owe my people the best of my energies, not only to honor and maintain this quality partnership, especially with the United States and the European Union, but also to remain faithful to our ties of solidarity, first with Africa, to tend its wounds and ensure its recovery, then with the Arab world, to speed up in the Middle East the peace process to which both the United States of America and Morocco have contributed by so many efforts and means to ensure a life of security and dignity to all the peoples of the region, and also with the Arab Union, which expects considerable impetus from its brothers and partners to foster its development for the benefit of its peoples and the stability of the region.

Ladies and gentlemen, as King of Morocco, invested by the Organization of the Islamic Conference with the presidency of the Alhutz Committee, it is my duty to call upon all believers, people of the Book and of the faith which unifies the children of Abraham to endeavor to free the city three times holy of hatred and resentment so as to restore its original vocation, that of the holy place, where the prayers of all believers converge in communion under the eye of the one and only God.

Justice, as it is universally taught, is the pillar of truth faith. Likewise, ethics has been and still remains the source of all power and the cornerstone of any policy intended to create a work of lasting significance founded on righteousness. As such, it is the only concept that establishes itself, spreads, and becomes universal, the only concept to which individuals and nations should adhere.

Mr. President, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, with the end of the Cold War, Governments and representatives of different nations found themselves confronted with new strategic issues, global social phenomena, and major ethical imperatives. Evolution in communication systems and globalization of financial and commercial markets have changed our modes of production, distribution, and conception, while amongst our fears nuclear threat now coexists with other threats to security resistant to identification and unchecked by borders.

Without giving an exhaustive list, I would cite barbaric terrorism, drug traffic, epidemics, transnational crime, money laundering in off-shore financial centers, celtic migrations, arms proliferation, mounting violence, and frequent aggressions against the national environment which could upset and impair its fragile equilibrium.

I particularly wish to stress the impact of that coldly calculated violence based on rules which are inequitable to the underdeveloped countries weighed down by the burden of their debts, and whose little-valued products come up against inaccessible markets and captive technology. Furthermore, their plans for development are often futile because of dwindling public funding and meager financing.

It is in the interest of mankind, with the diversity of its contributions to universal civilization, to pull all its potentialities without marginalizing a continent or a region, without excluding any nation from the advantages of progress, without causing social fractures, and above all, without discriminating against women or any vulnerable social group, who are all our partners, and all should benefit from development and progress.

It is my conviction that our world today, at the dawn of the 21st Century, is undergoing a stage of gestation and transition where a consensus built around principles common to all will emerge from the juxtaposition of specificities where unilateral political initiatives will gradually give way to the strengthening of the United Nations Organization and the multilateral system, and where optional international relations will gradually be replaced by an inevitable global cooperation until the state of national law progressively shifts towards an architecture of international law.

The State in the New Millennium should no longer be confined to the role of alchemist of national consensus. Rather, it should be that of organizer of fruitful dialogue between cultures and civilization, and at the same time the catalyst of global patriotism. This would place each of us, when dealing with world issues, under the obligation to think globally before acting locally, fully aware of our acts and of their consequences upon others, all others.

Let us work together, then, to strengthen national democracies using internationally agreed-upon rules so as to consolidate legality and ethical spirit at the universal level. In this way, we could create a maximum of partnership networks and synergy between peoples so that peace becomes widespread and our common prosperity increases. It is for the achievement of this ideal and this universal ethical order that I call upon you today, knowing the major role you play in managing the affairs of the world, a world we hope fertilized by solidarity, brotherhood, and hope.

Mr. President, before I conclude, I should like to say how delighted I am by the fact that George Washington University, this internationally respected institution, is twinned with the Moroccan El Ahawan University, which, despite its recent creation, is progressing in the most exemplary and promising way.

Thank you for your attention.

(Applause.)