Algeria

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Ms. Mary Lawlor, expressed her deep disappointment over the continued arbitrary detention, judicial harassment, intimidation, and criminalization of human rights defenders in Algeria due to their peaceful activities under vaguely worded provisions such as "harming state security." 

On November 7, 2024, Alkarama submitted the case of Mr. Tidjani AMRI, an investigative journalist, to the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC). Mr. AMRI was abducted on 27 May 2019, in Tébessa and taken to the Ben-Aknoun detention center, where he was tortured until 4 June 2019, by the military. 

In the run-up to the Algerian presidential elections on 7 September 2024, Algeria is experiencing a period of particularly severe repression, marked by a wave of arbitrary arrests of political opponents, pro-democracy activists, journalists, academics and human rights defenders.

This repression, orchestrated by the authorities, constitutes a flagrant violation of Algeria's international human rights obligations, particularly under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).