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. Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to call upon the State to respect its international obligations by ceasing to violate the rights of the families of the disappeared to peacefully demand justice and truth about the fate of their relatives.

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.

The main concerns raised by Alkarama include the ongoing serious violations of the detainees' most basic rights, the State's clear lack of cooperation with the UN human rights protection mechanisms, particularly in cases of enforced disappearances, the continued restriction on fundamental freedoms inherited from the 19-year-long state of emergency, and the human rights abuses committed in the context of the fight against terrorism. In its report, Alkarama suggests 18 recommendations to be addressed to Algeria in order to strengthen the authorities' respect for human rights.

Geneva, 30 August 2016

On the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Alkarama denounces, in its latest public report, the denial of the right to truth and justice for the families of disappeared people and calls upon the Algerian authorities to engage in a genuine process of national reconciliation. Indeed, 20 years after the disappearance of thousands of victims arrested during the civil war and 10 years after the adoption of the “Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation”, their families still know nothing about their fate, and the authorities persist in denying responsibility for these crimes.

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. Alkarama seized the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders (SR HRD) with their case on 8 February 2016.