GENERAL
Reelection of incumbent President
On 7th September 2024, the incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune who is backed by the country’s army, was reelected for a second mandate with 84.3% of the votes, with a turnout of less than 50%. The other candidates denounced ‘irregularities and contradictions in the results announced’.
ASSOCIATION
Campaign against curtailed civic space
Ahead of the September 2024 general elections, a coalition of twenty Algerian, North African and international human rights organisations launched a campaign warning of the ‘severe curtailment of fundamental rights and freedoms’ and the ‘consolidation of authoritarianism’ under way in Algeria. They called on the government to release unjustly imprisoned detainees and to support an enabling environment for civil society actors.
In a press statement published ahead of the presidential elections, Amnesty International said:
In recent years Algeria has experienced a steady erosion of human rights through the authorities’ dissolution of political parties, civil society organisations and independent media outlets, alongside a spike in arbitrary arrests and prosecutions using trumped-up terrorism charges. Alarmingly, this reality has remained bleak in the run-up to the election.
- Amjad Yamin, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Amnesty further noted that authorities continuously harassed political opposition activists in the months preceding the elections. For example, on 6th August 2024, political activist Yacine Mekireche, from the suspended Democratic and Social Movement (MDS) political party, was arbitrarily arrested over his social media posts on Facebook. On 20th August 2024, at least 60 political activists, most of them from the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) political party, were arrested as they attempted to commemorate the first congress of the National Liberation Front (FLN) of August 1956 (the Soummam congress, which marked the beginning of Algeria’s fight for independence from the colonial power of France).
It also noted its concerns over the continuous targeting of civil society. For example, in January 2023, Algeria’s longest-standing independent human rights organisation, the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), was dissolved, (see previous update). Following this, an appeal was heard before the administrative tribunal on 23rd January 2024. Ahead of the hearing, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights called on the authorities to overturn the dissolution.
Situation of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs)
On 1st September 2024, human rights defenders Kamira Nait Sid and Slimane Bouhafs were released from prison after serving a three-year sentence on terrorism-related charges. The pair were accused of being affiliated with the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK), which the Algerian authorities have designated as a terrorist organisation — an accusation both have denied. Both Nait Sid and Bouhafs were abducted separately in August 2021 by Algerian security forces.
Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, conducted a mission in Algeria between September and December 2023. In her end of mission statement, Lawlor noted that “human rights defenders who operate outside the government-designed civil society framework face serious difficulties”. She added that several of her meetings with HRDs were refused or cancelled due to “fear of reprisals ”. She noted four patterns of violations against HRDs which include:
- Ongoing judicial harassment through multiple criminal cases against human rights defenders;
- Dissolution of key human rights organisations;
- Limitations of freedom of movement and routine surveillance of HRDs;
- The impact of years of stress, insecurity and fear on the mental health of human rights defenders.
PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY
Disruption or ban on holding events
On 29th June 2024, police disrupted a book signing event for “La Kabylie en partage, dans l’intimité des femmes” by French writer Dominique Marter at a bookstore in the city of Bejaia. They ordered the store's closure and arrested all those attending for participating in an unauthorised gathering. The author and participants were later released after questioning.
On 29th February and 9th March 2024, Algerian NGO SOS Disappeared was prevented from holding two separate human rights events on the organisation’s premises. According to Amnesty International, on both occasions large numbers of police surrounded the association’s offices, blocking access to it and preventing people from attending.
Crackdown on the Hirak protest movement
On the fifth anniversary of the Hirak protest movement, which saw peaceful mass protests across Algeria leading to the resignation of then-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Amnesty International noted the continued crackdown on the movement. It stated that hundreds of people have been arbitrarily arrested and detained for criticising the authorities, including peaceful protesters, journalists, activists and human rights defenders.
“Algeria’s authorities must make the five-year anniversary of the Hirak protest movement a turning point by putting an end to this climate of repression and ordering the immediate release of those arbitrarily detained and allowing peaceful protests. The authorities must also stop the harassment of opponents and perceived critics and reform key legislation including repealing vague and overly broad provisions that have been used to repress human rights”
- Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Palestine solidarity protests
On 19th October 2023, several thousand people gathered to protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza. The demonstration was significant given that protests have been banned since June 2021. This comes after the 2019 Hirak protests, which resumed again in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, only for authorities to issue a protest ban. Authorities banned an earlier planned protest on 13th October 2023.
EXPRESSION
Penal Code amended, used to crackdown on free speech
Algerian authorities have persisted in using terrorism charges to silence peaceful dissent. On 29th January 2024, authorities arbitrarily held activist and poet Mohamed Tadjadit in pre-trial detention for “glorification of terrorism” and “using communication technologies to support the actions and activities of terrorist organisations” under the Penal Code. The charges are believed to be related to videos the activist posted on his personal Facebook and TikTok accounts critical of the Algerian authorities. Between 2019 and 2022, the authorities prosecuted and detained Tadjadit in at least four different cases, all for his participation in peaceful protests or for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
On 2nd April 2024, the upper chamber of the Algerian Parliament confirmed amendments to the Penal Code which are likely to further stifle dissent. In a statement, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights noted several worrying amendments including:
- Broadly and vaguely defined terms of protecting ‘national security’ and ‘national interest’, which could be open to abuse of arbitrary enforcement;
- Increase of penalties associated with speaking out against the state, state officials, symbols, or institutions. Amendments to Article 144 increase penalties for ‘insulting’ state officials, while the Articles 148 (1) and 149 (21) introduce new crimes related to insulting symbols of ‘the national liberation movement’ and harming ‘the image of the security services and their agents.’
- Expansion of terrorist acts to include a new offence of providing ‘financial and economic resources’ to those included in the national list of ‘terrorist persons and entities.’
On 6th May 2024, the new Penal Code was promulgated. It reinforces a repressive legal climate and further limits fundamental rights in the country.
Journalists detained, arrested & sentenced
Several cases of detention and sentences against journalists were documented:
● On 15th April 2024, the authorities detained and questioned Farid Alilat, a journalist and Algerian citizen, at the Algiers International Airport for 11 hours, over his reporting for the privately owned Jeune Afrique news website. The police questioned him about his reporting and the people he knew, and confiscated his phones. This happened without a court order. After this, they sent him back to France, where he lives.
● On 27th June 2024, Algerian authorities arrested Omar Ferhat, director of local independent news website Algeria Scoop, and Sofiane Ghirous, the outlet’s editor-in-chief, in the capital, Algiers. Their arrest followed shortly after they were summoned for questioning about an Algeria Scoop video which documented two businesswomen protesting their mistreatment at a government-sponsored event about creativity. In addition, Abdelaziz Laadjel, a video reporter and editor at Algeria Scoop, was also placed under judicial supervision.
● On 1st August 2024, authorities arrested journalist and activist Merzoug Touati in connection with his Facebook posts about Gaza. He was released on 5th August under judicial control which enables authorities to legally summon him for questioning as they please.
● On 25th September 2024, Djelfa Tribune editor-in-chief Badreddine Guermat was arrested and charged with ‘insulting a state institution’ over a Facebook post which alleged government mismanagement. On 6th October 2024, Guermat was sentenced to one year in prison and fined 100,000 dinars (US$752), a decision which the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned.
“We are alarmed by an Algerian court’s decision to convict and sentence journalist Badreddine Guermat to one year in prison for simply doing his job” said @CPJMENA Program Coordinator @YeganehSalehi. https://t.co/bB035z6oA7
— CPJ MENA (@CPJMENA) October 8, 2024
- According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), after serving a 14-month prison sentence, Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjama was unconditionnally released. However, he is still not allowed to travel outside the country, which hampers his work.
- On 18th October 2023, freelance journalist Saad Bouakba was convicted of inciting hate, discrimination, and distributing publications harmful to the national interest, after he wrote an article criticising President Abdelmajid Tebboune’s livestock project in a city south of Algiers. Salim Salhi and Adel Lazizi, el-Madar TV managers, and Zoubir Fadel, a reporter at local independent news website al-Khabar, were also convicted on the same charges. The court sentenced Bouakba and Fadel to one year in prison on a six-month suspended sentence and issued a fine of 200,000 dinars (US$1,450), which they appealed. The court sentenced Salhi and Lazizi in absentia to three years in prison.
Journalists pardoned
To mark the 70th anniversary of the Algerian revolution, on 30th October 2024 President Abdelmadjid Tebboune pardoned over 8,000 prisoners, including journalists Ihsane El Kadi and Algeria Scoop journalists Omar Ferhat and Sofiane Ghirous. El Kadi, director of Radio M and Maghreb Émergent, spent 22 months in prison before the presidential pardon. El Kadi was sentenced in April 2023 to five years' imprisonment, three of which were suspended, for having received ’funds and advantages from a foreign source for the purpose of engaging in political propaganda‘ and having ’undermined State security [...] and public order’. His sentence was later increased on appeal to seven years‘ imprisonment. In an interview El Kadi gave a few days after his release, he qualified the environment in which the press evolves in Algeria as “apocalyptic”. Radio M, was forced to cease operations on 19th June 2024, after the court confirmed the dissolution of Interface Médias on 13th June 2024. The confiscation of its seized assets, a fine of ten million Algerian dinars (around 74,863 USD) and compensation of one million dinars (around 7,486 USD) was also confirmed.