Some 300 Algerians from the diaspora demonstrated on Saturday in the streets of Geneva, Switzerland, to challenge the UN on the human rights situation in their country, particularly in prisons.
This march took place while the 47th session of the Human Rights Council is being held in Geneva until July 13. “We came to denounce the arbitrary arrests, torture, and repression on this occasion,” said Assia Guechoud, who helped organize the march. “In recent months, the repression has only increased and there are more and more testimonies of torture.”
On May 11, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “increasingly concerned” by the situation in Algeria where several fundamental rights, such as the rights to freedom of opinion and of peaceful meeting, “continue to be attacked”, explaining in particular that student marches had been prevented by the authorities.
Determined to break the Hirak protest movement, the Algerian authorities have banned their demonstrations and are stepping up legal proceedings against opponents, activists, journalists, and academics.
In Geneva, the demonstrators marched to the headquarters of the High Commission, chanting slogans (“Down with the dictatorship”) or chanting “Free the prisoners of conscience”.
About twenty of them were dressed in an orange jumpsuit of prisoners, hands cuffed and feet shackled. Others pulled a large wooden carriage on which sat a man wearing the mask of French President Emmanuel Macron and another that of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
Le Hirak has long criticized Mr. Macron for supporting his Algerian counterpart, with whom he maintains very cordial relations, without reservation and without consideration for human rights violations in Algeria.
“We are asking the UN for a commission to investigate the human rights situation, particularly in prisons, and for the High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to put more pressure on the Algerian regime to release the detainees”, explained Ms. Guechoud.
More than 300 Algerians are currently in prison in connection with Hirak and/or individual freedoms, according to the National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD), a support association.
President Tebboune ordered last Sunday to release young prisoners held for taking part in Hirak protests. But “only 15 of the 18 detainees who were to be released on Sunday were released”, according to the vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH), Saïd Salhi.
