UN Special Rapporteur calls on Algeria to stop repression against human rights movement

Acts of intimidation, silencing and repression against the human rights movement in Algeria must stop, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, said on Wednesday.

The UN independent expert expressed concern about the increasing repression against civil society by the Algerian authorities, following the dissolution of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) and the Youth Action Rally (RAJ), two of the most important human rights associations in Algeria.

The decision to dissolve these two well-respected human rights associations demonstrates an alarming repression of civil society organizations and seriously undermines the space available to human rights defenders to associate, express themselves freely, and carry out their legitimate human rights activities, Lawlor told the UN news website.

The proceedings against LADDH did not respect the principles of the right to a fair trial, she observed, noting that the association was not informed of the lawsuit filed against it by the Interior Ministry in May 2022, nor of the date of the trial before the administrative court in June 2022, nor of the decision to dissolve it.