In addition to the general comments made by State party in the context of the Committee's final recommendations (CAT/C/DZA/CO3) on 20 May 2008 - which had already been stated orally by the members of the Algerian delegation during the sessions between 2 and 5 May 2008 - no follow-up has been made to date for the recommendations made by the CAT.
Alkarama reminds that it had submitted a Shadow Report to the CAT in the context of Algeria's periodic review.
The four recommendations for which the Algerian government has been asked to take practical measures on are :
Recommendation 4:
The State party should make sure that counter-terrorism measures are consistent with the commitments undertaken by Algeria under the Convention. The State party should also ensure the strict implementation of the Convention, particularly article 2, paragraph 2, which stipulates that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. In addition, the definition of terrorist and subversive acts should not give rise to interpretations whereby the legitimate expression of the rights established under the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights can be sanctioned as a terrorist act. The State party should also review the need for extending the state of emergency in the light of the criteria laid down in article 4 of the Covenant, to which Algeria is a party.
Recommendation 6:
The State party should ensure that all places of detention, including those run by the Intelligence and Security Department (DRS), be immediately placed under the control of the civilian prison administration and the prosecutor's office. It should also ensure that the competent judicial authority takes the necessary steps to look into the allegations concerning the existence of secret detention centres run by the DRS.
Recommendation 12:
The competent judicial authorities have the responsibility to launch investigations spontaneously without requiring individual complaints to be registered in order to shed light on the fate of missing persons, identify, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of acts of enforced disappearance and adequately compensate the families of missing persons. The State party should make a commitment to investigate every case of enforced disappearance and communicate the results of investigations to the families of missing persons, including by immediately making public the final report of the ad hoc National Commission on Missing Persons.
The Committee also considers that the publication of the names of missing persons registered since 1990 could be very useful during the gathering of information from persons who could provide facts to help move the investigation forward. The Committee also hopes that the State party will submit to it as soon as possible the list of missing persons registered since the 1990s.
Recommendation 15:
The State party should ensure that the identified perpetrators of sexual violence are prosecuted and duly punished. It should also appoint an independent commission to investigate acts of sexual violence committed during the internal conflict and make the results of the investigation public. The State party should also ensure that all the victims of sexual violence committed during the internal conflict receive prompt and adequate compensation as well as medical, psychological and social rehabilitation. These recommendations are consistent with those contained in the report which the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, presented to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/7/6/Add.2).