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ICTJ Activity

Algerian lawyers, NGOs, and family groups approached the ICTJ for assistance with justice-related issues in late 2003, following the government's creation of a commission-the National Consultative Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (CNCPPDH)-to investigate and resolve questions about cases of torture, violence, and disappearances dating back to 1992. In November 2003 ICTJ staff participated in capacity-building seminars for Algerian activists in Paris. Concerns about the new Commission's lack of transparency and judicial safeguards prompted activists to form a coalition to monitor and strengthen the investigative process.

The Center's work in Algeria in 2004 focused on capacity building and extensive monitoring of the government's efforts to determine the fate of the disappeared and to deal with issues of justice, accountability, and reconciliation. Work included facilitating the participation of Algerian activists in a weeklong regional-training workshop on transitional justice tools and mechanisms in June 2004. In conjunction with the Arab Institute of Human Rights (Tunisia), a second regional-training workshop in Morocco in December 2004 involved a large contingent of Algerian human rights defenders.

On October 31, 2004, newly reelected President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his intention to pursue a blanket amnesty law through a public vote. The date of the vote was not announced until August 2005. The president subsequently created the National Committee for the General Amnesty (CNAG) to inform the public of the merits of an amnesty for Algeria's future as a "reconciled" country at "peace with its past."

In March 2005 the CNCPPDH declared the partial results of its 15-month investigation on the fate of the disappeared. Although the final report was never publicly released, the Commission noted that 6,146 disappearances were directly attributable to Algerian security forces. In response the ICTJ issued a press release in conjunction with several international human rights groups, expressing concerns about the proposed amnesty and calling for an independent investigation into the past.

Through the summer of 2005 the ICTJ continued to work closely with Algerian civil-society partners on the issue of a formal amnesty. In June the ICTJ conducted a transitional justice workshop in Rabat, Morocco, for Algerian lawyers and NGO leaders in association with the Arab Institute for Human Rights and Freedom House. The Center also initiated contact with the Algerian government, requesting a visit to discuss truth and reconciliation experiences worldwide and to share expertise on transitional justice mechanisms.

In September 2005 a formal referendum on the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation proposed by President Bouteflika was overwhelmingly approved by 86 percent of Algerians who voted. The Charter aims to provide amnesty to armed rebels and exonerates state security forces while promising to provide reparations to the victims and their families. However, it does not provide for any truth-seeking mechanism or investigation into the serious abuses committed since 1991.

In February 2006 President Bouteflika issued a decree to implement the Charter. The ICTJ organized a two-day roundtable meeting in Brussels in July 2006 with representatives of Algerian civil society and several international human rights organizations to discuss the possibilities for transitional justice after the adoption of the decree. Participants expressed serious concerns about the decree's amnesty provisions. They resolved to study the possibility of establishing a truth commission in Algeria and to develop strategies to challenge provisions in the decree that violate Algeria's obligations under international law. In follow-up activities the ICTJ assisted a group with an amicus brief as it petitioned Algerian courts to challenge the constitutionality of the Charter and the amnesty law.

In the course of 2007 the ICTJ increased its consultations and meetings with representatives of Algerian civil society and intensified its efforts to respond to training requests by sponsoring the participation of Algerian activists and human rights lawyers in various ICTJ transitional justice courses, training sessions, and conferences. 

In February 2007 the ICTJ was invited to Algiers to participate in a national conference on creating a truth commission in Algeria. Algerian authorities prevented the meeting from taking place. That same week Algeria ratified the UN International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Together with the Moroccan Center for the Study of Human Rights and Democracy, the ICTJ organized a workshop designed for Algerian human rights activists, lawyers, and representatives of various victims' organizations in May 2008 in Rabat, Morocco. Over four days the participants and international experts examined truth-seeking mechanisms, documentation of mass human-rights violations, and forensic anthropology. They also discussed strategies to confront the challenges posed by the implementation of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation.   

The ICTJ has also been actively seeking permission to visit the country to meet with officials and key policy-makers to discuss transitional justice options for resolving the crisis.

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Background

Algeria is emerging from a decade of atrocities known as the "dirty war," during which an estimated 150,000 Algerians were killed and at least 7,000 disappeared. The 1992 military annulment of democratic election results, which would have brought an Islamist party to power, ushered in an era characterized by extreme violence committed by state security forces, armed rebels, and state-sponsored militias. Operating under a national state of emergency still in place today, the government and its various opposition factions have acted against the civilian population with complete impunity.

In 1999 President Bouteflika passed a Civil Harmony Law aimed at granting conditional amnesty to insurgents willing to lay down their arms and reintegrate into civil society. Since then violence has declined steadily, but little headway has been made in the areas of truth, justice, and reparations for victims and their families.

In September 2003 President Bouteflika established the CNCPPDH and gave it an 18-month mandate to determine the fate of the disappeared, draft proposals for compensating victims' families, and provide families with social assistance. The Commission acted primarily as an interlocutor between the state and victims' families. Several groups questioned what they saw as its weak investigative powers.

On March 31, 2005, the Commission submitted its confidential report to the president. Without revealing details Commission head Farouk Ksentini made public statements that attributed responsibility to the state for 6,146 of the disappearances on file. This admission coincided with a vigorous government campaign to promote a national referendum on a blanket amnesty. Government efforts to promote the amnesty aroused protests by national victims' and international human rights groups. Despite widespread approval of the National Charter on Peace and Reconciliation in the September 29, 2005, vote, the future of truth-seeking, accountability, and the amnesty declaration continues to be uncertain.

In February 2006 President Bouteflika issued a decree to implement the Charter. Subsequently, Algerian human rights lawyers brought a constitutional challenge against the decree's amnesty provisions.

As part of the Charter's implementation the authorities are expected to examine approximately 13,000 demands for financial compensation in the course of 2008. However, the February 2006 decree enacting the Charter obliges the families of disappeared persons to have them declared dead in order to be eligible for compensation.   

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(Updated June 2008)