Human Rights in Iraq (Part 2)

 Welcome back to the MENA Human Rights Blog. Following the review of human rights in Egypt, this post is focused on the human rights of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria.

Human rights in Algeria I’ve been shaped by a history of colonialism, independence, and terrorism throughout the 20th and 21st century.  Algeria was also one of the nations to undergo Arab Spring protests after 2011. Since 1830, the French had controlled Algeria under colonial rule, originally one through conquest against the Ottomans. Colonial rule in Algeria by the French was characterized by a lack of communication between the natives and the colonizers and oppression among the native Muslim society (The Algerian War). European settlers eventually established political, economic, and social control over the land while the native population was subject to poverty and Second class citizenship. Despite the oppression by the French colonists, hundreds of thousands fought for the French during World War I and World War II. During World War II the French government exiled Britain promised independence in emancipation for Syria and Lebanon (both French mandates at the time) which further and hopes for independence among the Algerians (The Algerian War). After World War II the false promises of autonomy prompted a wave of nationalist sentiment across Algeria, fighting for independence. The main nationalist party that emerged was the National Liberation Front (FLN) which sought to gain independence and advocated for social democracy. Throughout the 50s, The French sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Algeria to counter the various rebellions within the country despite increasing numbers of Algerians joining the resistance and a war for independence had been launched (The Algerian War). At the same time as the rebellion against the French, European settlers began attacking the government offices of the Algerian rebels. In 1962 a referendum was held on the issue of independence which was voted for unanimously by the Algerians with only 16,000 voting against independence (The Algerian War). Ahmed Ben Bella, leader of the FLN party, became the first President of independent Algeria. As President, Bella instituted policies of self-sufficiency and nationalized Latin through nationalization. Under his rule, Algeria joined the nonaligned movement to maintain relations with both the communist and capitalist blocks, to maintain relations with regional leaders such as Gamal Nasser of Egypt and also to maintain relations with France (The Algerian War). From the 60s to the late 70s Algeria underwent a series of decentralization of government, greater freedom of assembly, press, and political affiliation. In 1979 however, the Socialist project of the FLN had a setback due to Islamist militancy spread by the Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This led to the Islamic Salvation Front Party (FIS) winning in the general elections of 1992. The victory of the FIS in the elections led to a military coup to cancel the results of the election. The intervention of the military started a Civil War within the country and led to massacres committed by government forces and militants. In 2004, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected President with an overwhelming majority and offered a path to surrender for militants (The Algerian War). After winning his third term for President, protests broke out in 2011 over economic hardship, authoritarianism, and unemployment. As opposed to other states such as Egypt, the Algerian government offered concessions to the demonstrators such as lifting the country's state of emergency which had been in place since 1992. Also, in contrast to other countries in the region undergoing Arab Spring protests, Bouteflika announced amendments to the constitution which would produce political reform and increased subsidies to fund social services (The Algerian War). In 2019 despite the announcement of reforms such as the free implementation of term limits, Bouteflika ran for a fifth term and sparked a new wave of protests. In April 2019, with the military siding with the protesters, Bouteflika resigned in April. Despite the successful protest, only pre approved candidates would run in the next election in the military, who had formally cited with the protesters, repressed demonstrations that were held to increase political participation (Algeria Archive). Suppression of pro-democracy protesters along with COVID-19 and less than 1/3 of the population voting contributed to many members of the old government winning a majority of the seats in the legislature (Algeria Archive). Today, human rights in Algeria, while better than some of their contemporaries, are still lacking in certain areas. This includes the arrest of hundreds of activists and journalists, overextending anti-terrorism laws to target journalists, and the repression of political parties. In regards to religious and gender rights, Algeria is better than some of their neighbors but they were reported cases of the state harassing religious minorities, cracking down on religious expression (or antireligious expression), and discrimination and violence against women still presents problem for the women of Algeria. An example of discrimination and violations of women’s rights in Algeria is not recognizing marital rape as a crime and failure for police to prosecute femicides (55 cases in 2021) (Algeria Archive). In the context of human rights, The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria represents A better outcome than other countries who underwent Arab Spring protests. Despite the more understanding response by the government in wake of the protest, there are still similarities with countries such as Egypt. This includes the military using protests to further their control over the political process and undermine the democratic demands of the people. Despite the setbacks of 2019 to the present day, Algeria has much potential to further develop better human rights, democracy and equal treatment.

Citations:

“The Algerian War of Independence.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/place/Algeria/The-Algerian-War-of-Independence. 

“Algeria Archives.” Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/algeria/report-algeria/.