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. 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.

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. Despite claims by the father of two, then aged 51, that he did not know them and that he had only carried them in return for payment like any other customer, the police did not hesitate to make him suffer the worst types of abuse, using torture techniques commonly practiced during the civil war to force him to confess his links with the suspects.

Hassan Bouras was released on 18 January 2016 after spending the last three months in pretrial detention in El Bayadh prison in Western Algeria. This 48-year-old journalist and human rights defender was arrested at his home in El Bayadh on 2 October. His release follows the decision of the investigating judge to refer his case to the Criminal Court of El Bayadh. Bouras is nevertheless still accused of insulting the President and the military institution.

On 5 November 2015, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition (SR Truth) to inform him that the relatives of Nasreddine and Messaoud Fedsi − both arrested and summarily executed by the Taher police on 19 April 1997 – continue to face the silence of the Algerian judicial authorities.

At its last session, held from 27 July to 14 August 2015, the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) issued its findings on the complaint submitted by Alkarama relating to acts of torture inflicted on Hashemi Boukhalfa by the Department of Intelligence and Security Services (DRS) in 2011.