2023-11-24 20:09:57
According to its website, this international NGO for the protection and promotion of the rights of the Amazighs, whose members come from all the countries of North Africa, drew the attention of the Special Rapporteur, in particular, to the activities of activist defenders. of Human Rights and the subservience of justice to military power.
“Executive power is clearly and very visibly exercised by the army, which has created conditions in recent years that have never been more unfavorable to freedoms and human rights. The activities of defenders of freedoms and human rights are criminalized. Judges are clearly dependent on military power and lawyers cannot freely exercise their function because they are directly threatened with reprisals. As a result, laws and court procedures are violated and trials are not fair. » we read. This sad observation is shared by many Human Rights defense associations around the world. These violations have become common practices and the power in place takes no account of the disapproval expressed by these same associations. Very recently, President Tebboune said it clearly: “go and complain wherever you want. No one will be able to make us bend. »
The second point raised in the information note concerns the new amendments to the penal code, the tightening of which tends to restrict individual and associative freedoms. “In 2021, the government adopted reforms to the penal code that are very restrictive of freedoms, which it justifies by the need to “criminalize acts threatening the security and stability of the country. Heavy sanctions are planned for any person or civil society organization which receives financial aid from abroad (article 2) or which disseminates “fake news” (article 3). Concerning terrorism, article 87 bis retains such a broad and imprecise definition that any person using the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly is likely to be prosecuted for advocating terrorism. » Moreover, it is on the basis of this article 87 bis that a list made up of journalists, activists and social media players, qualified as terrorists, was published in March 2021 in the official journal. Two pacifist organizations, the RACHAD Movement and the Movement for the Self-determination of Kabylia (MAK) led by the poet, writer and singer, Ferhat Mehenni, have been pinned on the list of terrorist organizations.
The CMA also noted the coercive and unfair measures taken by the government against Amazigh cultural associations and associations defending freedoms. “On January 30, 2023, the authorities ordered the closure of the House of Human and Citizen Rights in Tizi-Wezzu (Tizi-Ouzou), which included a library and a documentation center and notably hosted seminars and workshops. human rights awareness conferences. On January 23, 2023, the authorities also proceeded with the administrative closure of the Human Rights Documentation Center in the town of Vgayet (Béjaia), in Kabylia, on the orders of the Wali (Prefect of the Province),” writes- he in his briefing note to Madam Mary Lawlor.
He did not fail to raise the illegal detention of its president Kamira Naït Sid, “who lives in Tizi-Wezzu (Tizi-Ouzou) in Kabylia, has suffered administrative, police and judicial harassment for many years. She was arrested and then released countless times and her professional activity as manager of an internet café in Tizi-Wezzu was arbitrarily closed by administrative decision in 2016.
. On August 21, 2021, Kamira Nait Sid was kidnapped, sequestered by the Algerian police, then tried for terrorism and sentenced to 3 years in prison. She is currently detained in Koléa prison, near Algiers. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion on 04/1/2022 in which it declared that the detention of Kamira Nait Sid is arbitrary (opinion no. 15/2022 of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, concerning Kamira Nait Sid (Algeria) – A/HRC/WGAD/2022/15.” And, the CMA added “Other members of the Amazigh World Congress were forced by the Algerian police to resign and cut all ties with our organization. Currently the CMA no longer has any members in Algeria. It is a ban on exercising which does not speak its name.”
It should be remembered that several Human Rights organizations contacted Ms. Mary Lawlor to report the serious violations of Human Rights in a country led by men who do not even respect their own laws, including the constitution which was recently violated by the appointment of a new Prime Minister, Mr. Larbaoui Nadir in this case, without his program being presented to parliament for approval and without belonging to the parliamentary majority as set out by the constitution amended on November 1, 2020.
It is a safe bet that the authorities in Algiers will in no way take into account the observations and even less the recommendations of the UN rapporteur on Human Rights or any other party.
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