Articles for Algeria

On November 15, 2017, Algerian human rights defender Rafik Belamrania was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Jijel Criminal Court for “supporting terrorism”. He was sentenced to a further three years' deprivation of his civil and political rights, which entails that, among other things, he cannot be a member of any association nor take part in human rights activism.

In preparation for the 2018 periodic review of Algeria by the Human Rights Committee (HRC), Alkarama submitted its contribution to the committee’s List of Issues on July 24, 2017.

On 11 May 2017, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), established by the Human Rights Council (HRC), adopted a  report containing the recommendations made by United Nations Member States to Algeria during the State’s review which took place on 8 May 2017.

At its 117^th session, held in Geneva from 17 October 2016 to 4 November 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HR Committee) issued its decision on the case of Mohammed Belamrania in response to the complaint filed on 9 May 2012 by Alkarama on behalf of the victim’s son, Rafik. Mohammed Belamrania, a father of ten, disappeared on 13 July 1995 after being arrested by soldiers at his home in the Wilaya of Jijel.

On 27 February 2017, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) following the arrest of Mr. Rafik Belamrania, the son of Mohammed Belamrania. The latter was arrested in 1995, tortured and summarily executed by the Algerian army.

On 7 September 2016, Alkarama submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) the case of Sadek Rsiwi, a veteran of the National Liberation Army (ALN) and father of eight children, who disappeared in 1996 after refusing to take the lead of a local militia at the request of the Intelligence and Security Services (DRS), thus refusing to get involved in the civil war that followed the January 1992 military coup.

On 29 September 2016, 20 human rights defenders* and relatives of disappeared people were violently arrested by the police as they were peacefully demonstrating outside the National Assembly headquarters in Algiers.

On 22 September 2016, Alkarama submitted its report on Algeria's human rights situation to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in view of the State's third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which will be held in May 2017.

On 15 November 2015, the police arrested Adel Ayachi and Tijani Ben Derrah, two bloggers and human rights activists who had, the day before, participated in a peaceful protest for freedom of expression. Almost three months later, the two activists remain detained in the prison of El Harrach, a suburb of Algiers, awaiting trial.

On 29 January 2016, Alkarama seized the experts of the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) with the case of Lakhdar Guellil. Arrested by police forces on 31 July 1996, the taxi driver from Djelfa City, located 300 km south of Algiers, was accused of not having denounced passengers he had brought to the nearby city of Aïn Oussera a few weeks beforehand, who were apparently sought for terrorism.