Background
On 9 March, elections were held to renew 58 out of the 174 members of the Council of the Nation – parliament’s upper house. As per the Constitution, two-thirds of seats were elected by local assemblies; the rest being nominated by the president.
Multiple extreme weather events – including heavy rain, a landslide and wildfires – resulted in at least 46 fatalities.
Freedom of association
In January, parliament reviewed a draft law on associations. It was awaiting government approval before being put to a parliamentary vote. The draft maintained a repressive legal framework with a cumbersome authorization system for registering associations and placed undue restrictions on their activities, funding and foreign cooperation. It gave executive authorities overly broad powers over the registration, suspension and dissolution of associations on vague grounds.
Authorities continued to target trade union members. Five union leaders and members faced unjust prosecutions and another was summoned on 8 April and questioned about his union activities. In July, police arbitrarily arrested a union leader after he announced a railway workers’ strike, in relation to which he was later sentenced to two years in prison. On 29 October, a court arbitrarily sentenced independent union leader Ali Mammeri to 15 years in prison for his union work and peaceful activism.1
Freedom of peaceful assembly
Authorities continued to unduly restrict peaceful assemblies and maintained an unlawful regime that required prior authorization for public gatherings.
In January and February, students, teachers and doctors carried out successive protests and strikes against inadequate school programmes, low salaries and deteriorating working conditions in the context of a rising cost of living. Police arbitrarily arrested peaceful protesters, including at least two union members. On 17 February the government declared a strike organized by teachers’ unions to be unlawful.
On 8 May, during a peaceful sit-in in the capital, Algiers, police arrested six people who were calling for a boycott of two companies for their alleged support to Israel.
On 4 August the Ministry of the Interior refused to authorize a march in support of Palestine organized by political parties.
On 2 October, police arrested at least 20 protesters who attempted to hold a sit-in in Algiers in support of the pro-Palestine Global Sumud Flotilla.
Local authorities refused to authorize the holding of a political meeting in Algiers of the Rally for Culture and Democracy on 24 May and their party summer camp on 9-11 October in the eastern region of Bejaia. They provided no lawful or proportionate grounds for such restrictions.
Freedom of expression
Authorities continued to repress dissenting voices and journalism using over-broad legal provisions, including unfounded terrorism charges, to arbitrarily arrest, detain and convict activists, social media users and journalists.
Following the launch of the Manich Radi (“I am not satisfied”) online movement in December 2024, which denounced restrictions on human rights and difficult socio-economic conditions, authorities responded with a wave of arrests. By April, authorities had arrested and convicted at least 23 activists and journalists for their social media posts.2
On 5 January, authorities placed journalist Abdelwakil Blamm in pretrial detention on terrorism-related charges based on his private communications with peaceful activists in which he exchanged information on the political situation in Algeria.
On 27 March, authorities sentenced French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal to five years in prison on charges including “undermining national unity”, based on his public opinions, writings and digital communications in which he criticized the Algerian authorities and commented on the French colonization of Algeria. On 12 November, President Abdelmajid Tebboune granted him a pardon, and he was allowed to leave Algeria.
On 26 June, authorities convicted 20 individuals to sentences ranging from two years to life imprisonment for a statement issued on behalf of the dissolved party Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), after 21 months in pretrial detention for 18 of them. They were sentenced for “exploiting the wounds of the national tragedy to endanger state institutions” and “undermining national unity” – vaguely worded charges that unduly restrict the right to freedom of expression.
On 29 June, authorities sentenced French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes to seven years in prison on charges including “glorifying terrorism”, in relation to his journalism work.
Freedom of movement
Authorities maintained arbitrary travel bans on activists, lawyers, trade unionists and journalists.
On 30 July, border police arbitrarily prevented French-Algerian national Nassera Dutour, president of the Collective of Families of the Disappeared in Algeria, from entering Algeria and forcibly returned her to France, where she resides.
Right to a fair trial
Judicial authorities repeatedly violated the right to a fair trial, including by placing individuals in pretrial detention without necessity; bringing defendants to court without informing their lawyers; and subjecting defendants to expedited court hearings that did not allow sufficient time to prepare a legal defence.
For instance, on 20 January, in an expedited trial held four days after his arrest, authorities sentenced activist and poet Mohamed Tadjadit to five years in prison for his social media publications and private communications.3 On 22 May an appeals court reduced his sentence to one year.
On 8 July the authorities adopted a new Code of Criminal Procedure which contained a range of provisions undermining the right to a fair trial and due process guarantees. These included provisions allowing for expedited trial proceedings that do not provide time for adequate defence; giving prosecutors discretionary powers to place people in pretrial detention without judicial review; giving authorities extended discretionary power to seize private goods without judicial order; allowing prosecutors to place people under travel bans without the possibility of judicial review; and normalizing the use of online judicial proceedings without justification or consent.
Women’s and girls’ rights
In August, Algeria lifted its reservation on Article 15(4) of CEDAW relating to freedom of movement and residence.
On 9 February, President Abdelmajid Tebboune instructed the government to establish concrete legal mechanisms to protect women and girl survivors of violence. The government announced measures including the establishment of a hotline and an interactive online platform; the development of a legal guide for women; and trainings for relevant professionals. Women’s rights organizations welcomed the announcement while calling for concrete and sustained actions.
However, official statistics on gender-based violence remained unavailable. The activist group Féminicides Algérie recorded 37 femicides as of November.
On 19 July the authorities adopted legislation extending maternity leave for women workers from 98 to 150 days. However, according to women’s rights organizations, authorities continued to deprive women working in the public or private sectors of maternity leave if they missed workdays during their pregnancy, citing Article 32 of Executive Decree 84-27.
LGBTI people’s rights
The authorities maintained Penal Code provisions that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations between adults, punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine.
Refugees’ and migrants’ rights
From April onwards, Algerian security forces stepped up their mass arrests and collective expulsions of Black and racialized migrants, while media outlets increasingly shared racist content. According to Niger authorities, between January and May, Algeria summarily and collectively expelled at least 21,948 migrants to Niger.
On 2 May the National Independent Audiovisual Regulatory Authority, whose members were nominated by the president, announced the suspension of the Echorouk News TV channel for 10 days due to the publication on its Facebook page of a racist and discriminatory term against Black migrants.
Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf
Sahrawi refugees continued to suffer from a marked deterioration in living conditions due to an increase in food prices and the reduction in international humanitarian assistance, despite some efforts by the Algerian government to compensate for the shortage. In July the World Food Programme highlighted an unprecedented spike in acute malnutrition, with one in three Sahrawi refugee children having stunted growth.
Freedom of religion and belief
Authorities continued to arbitrarily deny registration to the Protestant Church of Algeria. All 47 Protestant churches in Algeria remained closed either due to a court order or fear of arbitrary prosecutions against their members.
Death penalty
On 1 July, authorities adopted amendments to Law 04-18 relating to the Prevention and Suppression of the Illicit Use and Trafficking of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances. The amendments for the first time introduced the death penalty as a sanction for several drug-related offences. No executions had been carried out since 1993.
Right to a healthy environment
Algeria made limited progress to reduce gas flaring, a practice that releases greenhouse gas emissions and can harm the health of surrounding communities through the emission of potentially carcinogenic gases and environmental pollutants. The World Bank reported a 4% decrease in flaring volume compared to the previous year, maintaining Algeria as the world’s sixth most gas flaring nation.
On 27 February the government launched the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency to improve national capacity for data collection in relation to climate change.
- “Algeria: Authorities must quash outrageous 15-year sentence against unionist Ali Mammeri”, 31 October ↩︎
- “Algeria: Authorities step up crackdown on peaceful dissent in the face of new expressions of discontent”, 24 April ↩︎
- “Algeria: Activist and poet faces five years in prison: Mohamed Tadjadit”, 14 April ↩︎
