UN concerned over growing human rights violations in Algeria

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has reiterated serious concern about the serious human rights violations and growing restrictions imposed by Algerian authorities on fundamental freedoms.

“In Algeria, I am concerned about the growing restrictions on fundamental freedoms, including the increasing number of arrests and detentions of human rights defenders, members of civil society and political opponents,” said Ms. Bachelet in her latest annual report on the situation of Human rights in the world.

In this report submitted Tuesday to the 49th session of the Human Rights Council, Ms. Bachelet has called on the Algerian government to change course and take all necessary steps to end its repression and guarantee its people’s rights to freedom of speech, association and peaceful assembly.

The systematic violations of human rights and the repression of Hirak activists in Algeria had been denounced by several regional and international organizations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN special rapporteurs.

For its part, the European Parliament had adopted, in less than a year, two successive resolutions on the alarming human rights situation in Algeria, while several MEPs have condemned the continuing oppression, prosecution and harassment of the Hirak militants by the Algerian military regime.