Geneva: NGO urges Algeria to look into extrajudicial executions

NGO PDES (French for ‘Promotion of Economic and Social Development’) has called on Algeria to “take its responsibility by launching impartial investigations into cases of extrajudicial executions.”

Speaking at a meeting held on Wednesday in Geneva as part of the 54th Session of the Human Rights Council, the NGO noted that “Algeria had declared that it had taken several measures to address the issue of extrajudicial executions. However, the country has still not ordered the opening of impartial investigations into cases of extrajudicial executions and the excessive use of force by the army and police.”

“As international conventions guarantee the right to life, exceptional circumstances including a state of war, the threat of war, internal political instability, or any other state of emergency cannot be used to justify extrajudicial measures, summary sentences, or arbitrary executions,” PDES warned.

Algerian state authorities continue to commit arbitrary executions, and numerous killings of young people by Algerian public forces have been reported, whether by bullets or immolation, it said.

In this context, the NGO noted that “Algeria continues to ignore the Sahrawi victims of extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions,” reporting “the recurrence of cases of execution in the Tindouf camps in south-west Algeria by the Algerian army.” These cases, in the absence of Algerian rule of law in the Tindouf camps, can be described as systematic murder.

The nature of these violations calls for investigations into the events that took place to prevent a climate of impunity from reigning, PDES stressed, pointing to Algeria’s duty under international law to investigate allegations of violations and arbitrary executions against these people.

“Any failure on its part, as a state party, to investigate these allegations constitutes per se an independent violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” the NGO concluded.