Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, is in Algeria. On the agenda of his visit: interviews with the authorities and with activists, some of whom are imprisoned. It will be reported in
Mary Lawlor, the visiting UN special rapporteur charged with examining the situation of human rights defenders in Algeria since November 26 and until December 5, was able to have access to the prisons of El Harrach (Algiers), Koléa, and Tiaret.
This is a first, in this country, for a UN expert. Mary Lawlor also attended, on December 2, the opening of the trial of members of the Oran section of the Algerian League>, at the Dar El Beida court. The Defense of Human Rights (LADDH), dissolved
Photos on Facebook
These representatives – Saïd Boudour, Kaddour Chouicha, and Jamila Loukil – “should not be prosecuted for their work as human rights defenders,” she declared after leaving the hearing. She showed her solidarity with the defendants by publishing photos on her Facebook account a few hours later.
All three appeared to answer charges of “conspiracy to undermine state security and membership in a terrorist organization”, based on article 87 bis of the penal code amended in June 2021, which broadens the definition of a terrorist act to a “desire to access power or to change the system of governance by means not constitutional.”
Two days earlier, the rapporteur had been able to speak, at El Harrach prison, with anti-corruption whistleblower Noureddine Tounsi and with activist Karima Naït Sid, co-president of the Amazigh World Congress, arrested in August 2021 and sentenced to three years in prison for “receiving funds intended to undermine national unity and state security”, “use of technology to spread false information”, and “joining a terrorist organization”.
According to our sources, other visits to prisoners are planned – notably with Ahmed Manseri, the former president of the LADDH section of Tiaret, who is serving a year of detention for “dissemination of documents harming the national interest” and “incitement to an unarmed assembly.”
What future for LADDH?
Mary Lawlor, who devoted a large part of her program to inquiring about the situation of activists of the LADDH, dissolved in January 2023, also spoke with Abdelmoumene Khelil, its former secretary general. “I explained to the rapporteur that the authorities must guarantee citizens the possibility of defending human rights individually as well as within d autonomous associations, by the Algerian Constitution and international instruments for the protection of human rights. Given this imperative, the dissolution of the LADDH cannot be definitive”, summarizes Abdelmoumene Khelil.
In Tizi-Ouzou, at the Ittourar Hotel, the UN rapporteur also met a group of lawyers engaged in the defense of prisoners of conscience and blogger and activist Merzoug Touati. According to Me Yamina Alili, these exchanges made it possible to discuss the legal proceedings and the ISTN (bans on leaving the national territory) taken against around ten lawyers without any legal action having been taken beforehand. “Mary Lawlor asked me if I too was affected by this measure. I replied that I didn’t know, since you only discover that you have an ISTN once you arrive at the police checkpoint at the airport,” confides Yamina Alili.
During her stay, the UN rapporteur also led meetings with the United Nations team stationed in the country as well as with the diplomatic corps, met with journalists, academics, and representatives of the associative movement to try to understand how the main laws and certain political decisions affect freedom of expression, association or assembly, and how these problems can be solved.
Mary Lawlor was also received by official officials: ministers Brahim Merad (Interior and Local communities), Abderrachid Tabi (Justice) and Mohamed Lagab (Information and Communication). She also met with the president of the Superior Youth Council, Mustapha Hidaoui, and with Leïla Aslaoui, a member of the Constitutional Court, who represented the president of the institution, Omar Belhadj.
Facilities
These discussions made it possible to “review the constitutional and legal reforms aimed at protecting and promoting human rights and freedoms in Algeria, as well as the means of cooperation with regional organizations and mechanisms [which work on these subjects]”, commented the Algerian authorities.
For her part, the rapporteur discussed with several senior Algerian officials “the issues related to her mandate” and praised “the facilities” from which she benefited to accomplish her mission in Algeria, which ends this Tuesday with a press conference at the Saint-Georges hotel. The expert will present her report to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2024.
