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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.
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.