HRC 52: Civil society urges Algeria to end reprisals and release arbitrarily detained individuals

During the adoption of the Algeria Universal Periodic Review outcomes, organisations addressed the ongoing crackdown on human rights defenders and civil society organisations.

In the joint statement, the organisations [1] addressed the ongoing crackdown, including through the amendment of laws aimed at silencing peaceful dissent and stifling civil society.

Addressing the Council, human rights defender Kaddour Chouicha spoke about the dissolution of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), an organisation he was a member of and his targeting with unfounded terrorism charges. On 24 August 2022, Kaddour Chouicha was prevented from traveling to attend the pre-session organized by UPR-info, a clear case of reprisals against human rights defenders attempting to cooperate with the UPR.

Following the statement, the Algerian ambassador denied the allegations of reprisals, responding that Chouicha was under judicial control. This contradicts the fact that Algerian courts have not imposed any travel restrictions on Chouicha. In the past months, Chouicha addressed several complaints targeting the national security instances, as well as the Minister of the Interior on the issue of travel restrictions, to which he has received no responses to date.

[1] ISHR, MENA Rights Group, CIVICUS, Euromed Rights, and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

Read the statement here and watch it in the below video:

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Region

Africa

Country

Algeria

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Programmes

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