In 2003, the Justice for Algeria Committee – with the support of 16 other Algerian and international NGOs – submitted a request to the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to open an investigation into human rights violations committed in Algeria, particularly since 1992, with a view to exposing and condemning human rights violations attributable to the state’s armed forces, state institutions, auxiliary militias and armed religious groups.
On the basis of the evidence provided by the applicant organisations, the Tribunal has established the involvement of the Algerian armed forces and state institutions in systematic human rights violations: ranging from the direct execution or tacit condonement of massacres of civilians to over 7,000 cases of enforced disappearance; the use of torture in both official and secret facilities, the use of mass rape as a weapon of war, and the targeted assassination of journalists, intellectuals and dissidents.
In its Judgement, the Tribunal emphasised the significant responsibilities of Islamist extremist groups and concluded that the primary cause of the escalating violence in Algeria after 1988 was the consistent absence of the rule of law, resulting from the military’s ongoing influence over the country’s political, economic, and judicial affairs. The PPT emphasised in its recommendations that genuine political change and a definitive resolution of past atrocities require full acknowledgement of these responsibilities and the effective restoration of constitutional and democratic safeguards.
Requesting organisations: Justice for Algeria Committee with the support of:
– Ligue algérienne de défense des droits de l’Homme (LADDH) ;
– S.O.S. disparus ;
– Action des chrétiens pour l’abolition de la torture (ACAT) ;
– Association droits de l’Homme pour tous (ADHT) ;
– CEDETIM ;
– Collectif des familles de disparu(e) s en Algérie ;
– Ligue française des droits de l’Homme (LDH) ;
– Pro-Asyl ;
– Algeria-Watch ;
– Amnesty International ;
– Comité international pour la paix, les droits de l’Homme et la démocratie en Algérie (CIPA) ;
– Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (FIDH) ;
– Organisation mondiale contre la torture (OMCT) ;
– Reporters sans frontières (RSF) ;
– Cimade Rhône- Alpes
Réseau euroméditerranéen des droits de l’Homme (REMDH)
Documentation:
Download the judgment in French