{"id":157354,"date":"2023-09-26T20:40:16","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T18:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/north-africa\/algeria\/algeria-must-open-civic-space-and-let-critical-voices-be-heard-united-nations-un-expert\/"},"modified":"2023-09-26T20:40:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T18:40:16","slug":"algeria-must-open-civic-space-and-let-critical-voices-be-heard-united-nations-un-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/north-africa\/algeria\/algeria-must-open-civic-space-and-let-critical-voices-be-heard-united-nations-un-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Algeria must open civic space and let critical voices be heard: United Nations (UN) expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Urgent attention must be given to the current situation of legal restrictions and prosecutions of individuals and associations in Algeria, a UN expert said today.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“The Government must loosen tight restrictions on assemblies and associations to bring laws and practice into conformity with the national Constitution and international human rights law\u201d, said Cl\u00e9ment Nyaletsossi Voule, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to peaceful assembly and association in a statement<\/a> at the end of a 10-day official visit to Algeria.<\/p>\n

The visit took place during ongoing reforms to bring legislation into conformity with the 2020 Constitution and aspirations of the Hirak demonstrations, which brought hundreds of thousands of Algerians to the streets every week for more than a year in 2019 – 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHirak demonstrators showed remarkable civic spirit, setting an example for the world on the conduct of peaceful protests,\u201d Voule said. He also commented on the largely measured and professional response by Algeria\u2019s national police during the Hirak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government must now address the climate of fear caused by a string of criminal charges against individuals, associations, trade unions and political parties under overly restrictive laws, including anti-terrorism legislation contrary to Algeria\u2019s international human rights obligations,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn building the new Algeria, I urge the Government to abandon charges and pardon those people convicted for their involvement in the Hirak. This will also reflect recognition of Hirak as a turning point in Algeria\u2019s commitment to move forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the spirit of the peaceful Hirak protests, the common message from all civil society actors I met was to be recognised by public authorities as trusted partners in the development of their country,\u201d the UN expert said.<\/p>\n

Voule said that while he observed efforts to improve the economic situation of the population, Algeria was still struggling to provide space for civil society. He reiterated that allowing civil space that also includes critical voices is essential to improved governance and policy making, and to build sustainable and inclusive participatory democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo meet the promise of the Constitution and the Hirak, and to fulfil its obligations under international human rights treaties, Algeria must guarantee, in law and in practice, the right of its population to assemble and associate freely, to exchange views and ideas and defend specific interests, including in collaboration with partners within and outside the country,\u201d Voule said.<\/p>\n

The Special Rapporteur will submit a comprehensive report on his visit to Algeria to the Human Rights Council in June 2024.<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).<\/i><\/p>\n

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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 North Africa Algeria<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download logo Urgent attention must be given to the current situation of legal restrictions and prosecutions of individuals and associations in Algeria, a UN expert said today. “The Government must loosen tight restrictions on assemblies and associations to bring laws and practice into conformity with the national Constitution and international human rights law\u201d, said Cl\u00e9ment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":157355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/6dd84b353a161fe","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[655],"tags":[258,256,4705,8139,10592,7129,8957,9610,4301,257,5983,254,5215,7866,6389],"class_list":["post-157354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-algeria","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-algeria","tag-algeria-news","tag-civic","tag-critical","tag-expert","tag-heard","tag-nations","tag-news","tag-open","tag-south-africa-today","tag-space","tag-united","tag-voices"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/6dd84b353a161fe","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}