Amnesty International Report 2017/18

70

Amnesty International Report 2017/18

JUSTICE SYSTEM

Measures to ensure judicial independence 

were partially implemented. In June, two 

judicial associations appealed to the 

Constitutional Court against a vetting law, 

which sought to ensure judges’ and 

prosecutors’ independence from organized 

crime.

IMPUNITY

In a case brought before the European Court 

of Human Rights, in April the government 

agreed to reopen proceedings in the case of 

four protesters killed during January 2011 

demonstrations. A total payment of just over 

EUR100,000 as a form of compensation was 

divided between relatives of two of the 

victims.

ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES

No measures were taken to locate the body 

of Remzi Hoxha, a Macedonian Albanian who 

was forcibly disappeared by National 

Intelligence Service officials in 1995. No 

progress was reported towards the 

exhumation of the remains of around 6,000 

people who had disappeared between 1945 

and 1991.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION − 

JOURNALISTS

Physical attacks against investigative 

journalists were perpetrated by organized 

criminals, or owners of private companies. In 

March, journalist Elvi Fundo was beaten in 

the capital, Tirana, by assailants believed to 

be associated with organized crime. In June, 

TV channel owner Erven Hyseni was shot 

dead in Vlora, along with a government 

official.

In July, journalists claimed that defamation 

proceedings brought against two media 

outlets by High Court Judge Gjin Gjoni and 

his wife, businesswoman Elona Caushi, 

aimed to intimidate investigative journalists 

and encourage self-censorship.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 

TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

In February two NGOs filed a complaint with 

the European Court of Human Rights, 

requesting an amendment to the Family 

Code which prohibits cohabitation rights for 

same-sex couples. An August survey found 

widespread discrimination in employment in 

both the public and private sectors.

MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS

In May, a UK court found that hundreds of 

lesbian and gay people, trafficking victims 

and domestic violence survivors may have 

been wrongly deported to Albania since 2011 

because UK courts had relied on incorrect 

guidance. Some 4,421 Albanian asylum-

seekers voluntarily returned from EU 

countries; 2,500 rejected asylum-seekers 

were deported from Germany.

Unaccompanied minors and families with 

children were sometimes detained in the 

Irregular Foreigners Centre at Karreç, a 

closed centre for irregular migrants due for 

deportation.

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL 

RIGHTS

In September, 20 children’s NGOs protested 

against the abolition of the Labour and Social 

Welfare Ministry, which threatened to put 

social services at risk.

The Ministry of Urban Development 

reconstructed 300 Roma and Egyptian 

houses, and improved sanitation. However, 

most Roma lacked clean water and many 

were at risk of forced evictions.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

Reports of domestic violence increased; 420 

immediate protection orders had been issued 

by 1 June. In August, Judge Fildeze Hafizi 

was shot and killed in her car by her former 

husband. She had been granted a protection 

order in 2015 after he had beaten her. He 

was convicted and imprisoned in April 2016, 

but released in early 2017 under a general 

amnesty.

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

71

ALGERIA

People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Head of state: Abdelaziz Bouteflika 

Head of government: Ahmed Ouyahia (replaced 

Abdelmadjid Tebboune in August, who replaced 

Abdelmalek Sellal in May)

The authorities continued to arbitrarily 

detain peaceful demonstrators, human 

rights defenders, activists and journalists. 

Associations continued to face undue 

restrictions, and legislation that restricted 

the right to form trade unions remained in 

place. Members of the Ahmadi Muslim 

religious minority group were unjustly 

prosecuted. Impunity for past abuses 

prevailed. Migrants faced mass expulsions. 

Courts handed down death sentences; no 

executions were carried out.

BACKGROUND

In January, new austerity measures 

announced by the government triggered 

protests and strikes, particularly in the 

northern Kabylia and Chaouia regions. In 

February, a presidential decree established 

Algeria’s new national human rights 

institution, the National Human Rights 

Council, replacing the National Consultative 

Commission for the Promotion and Protection 

of Human Rights. In May, Algeria was 

examined under the UN UPR process for the 

third time.

1

 Also in May, legislative elections 

characterized by low participation brought 

limited change to party representation in 

parliament and Abdelmadjid Tebboune briefly 

became Prime Minister after a government 

reshuffle, before Ahmed Ouyahia replaced 

him in August.

Low-level sporadic clashes took place 

between security forces and armed 

opposition groups in several areas. In August, 

a suicide bomber killed himself and two 

policemen in an attack on a police station in 

Tiaret, west of the capital Algiers, which was 

later claimed by both the armed group 

Islamic State (IS) and al-Qa’ida in the Islamic 

Maghreb (AQIM).

FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND 

ASSEMBLY

The authorities continued to arrest and 

prosecute peaceful activists, including those 

protesting about unemployment and public 

services. Those protesting in solidarity with 

detained activists, as well as journalists and 

bloggers covering protests on social media, 

were also detained.

In January, police arrested renowned 

blogger Merzoug Touati in Bejaia, Kabylia 

region, following anti-austerity protests in 

Kabylia. The authorities kept him in detention 

while investigating him for interviewing an 

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman 

on his blog, and for posts about the protests.

In June, police arrested journalist Said 

Chitour on suspicion of espionage and selling 

classified documents to foreign diplomats. In 

November his case was transferred to the 

Penal Court.

The authorities maintained a protest ban in 

Algiers under a decree from 2001.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

The authorities kept many associations, 

including Amnesty International Algeria and 

other human rights groups, in legal limbo by 

failing to respond to registration applications 

under the highly restrictive Associations Law. 

Local authorities denied authorization to the 

Algerian League for the Defence of Human 

Rights (LADDH) to hold a human rights 

meeting in October and a public event 

celebrating the Universal Declaration of 

Human Rights in December. The government 

had yet to produce a new draft law respecting 

freedom of association, as required by the 

constitutional amendments of 2016.

HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

Human rights defender Hassan Bouras was 

released in January after a court reduced his 

one-year prison term to a six-month 

suspended sentence. Police had arrested 

him for posting a video on the YouTube 

channel of the El Bayadh branch of LADDH 

alleging corruption among high-ranking 

officials in the city of El Bayadh.

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