Algeria: Time for Reckoning: Enforced Disappearances in Algeria
Human Rights Watch
2003, Human Rights Watch:
This report is a follow-up to Human Rights Watch's first report on state-sponsored "disappearances," researched during their 1997 mission to Algeria and published in February 1998. That report, published when the issue was first attracting attention in Algeria and abroad, featured twelve case studies as a sample. The focus of the present report is to evaluate everything that Algerian authorities have said and done to address the thousands of outstanding cases of "disappearances" in the past five years. This report also covers the parallel issue of persons who are missing after having been abducted by armed groups fighting the government.
Table of contents:
I. Summary
II. Recommendations
To the Government of Algeria
To Political Parties in Algeria
To Armed Groups Implicated in the Abduction of Civilians
To the European Union and its Member Nations
III. About this Report
Acknowledgments
A Note on Terms: "Disappearances" and "Abductions"
Algeria's International Human Rights Obligations
IV. Introduction
The Political Setting
Counting Cases, Identifying Perpetrators
V. Cases
"Disappearances" Decline but Secret Detentions Continue
Persons Abducted by Armed Groups and Still Missing
VI. Mass Graves
VII. The Evolution of Government Discourse on Disappearances
1998: The Government First Acknowledges the Problem
1998: Government Sets Up Offices in Wilayas to Receive Complaints of "Disappearances"
1999: The New President Breaks the Taboo
1998-2003: The Official Statistics, Unverifiable and Inconsistent
VIII. The Role of the Courts
The Failure of Courts to Investigate "Disappearances"
IX. State Human Rights Monitoring Bodies: Watchdogs or Mere Mailboxes?
The CNCPPDH Replaces the ONDH
X. The International Community on a Treadmill
The European Union
The U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Cooperation with International NGOs Regarding "Disappearances"
XI. Other Countries Show Possible Paths on "Disappearances"
XII. Appendices
Appendix 1: Algerian Penal Code Articles Governing Illegal Arrests and Confinement
Appendix 2: Letter to Algeria's Minister of Justice
Appendix 3: Partial List of "Disappeared" Whose Fate Has Been Clarified
Appendix 4: Contradictory Information in Two Cases of "Disappearances"
XIII. Photographs
Source(s):
| Language | Format | Source |
|---|---|---|
| English | HTML page |  view/download |