Algeria: Human Rights Committee sides with TRIAL on enforced disappearances

The United Nations Human Rights Committee just recently condemned Algeria in yet again another case of enforced disappearance. In August 1996, Mr. Bouzid Mezine, a 32-years old taxi driver, was forcibly disappeared in the context of a police operation in his neighborhood. He has not been seen since. The case is the sixth that TRIAL has won against Algeria.

For over a decade Mr. Mezine’s relatives have turned to all the competent authorities in order to shed light on his fate but with no success. A former detainee of the military prison of Blida reportedly saw him two months after the arrest. But despite the family’s persistent attempts, Algerian authorities have failed to give any information about Mr. Mezine’s fate, no effective investigation has been opened and no one has ever been prosecuted for his enforced disappearance.

The arrest and disappearance of Mr. Mezine occurred within the general context of the enforced disappearance of thousands of Algerian citizens at the hands of the army or the State security forces during Algerian civil war from 1992 to 2002.

Since the promulgation of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation in February 2006, the victim’s family is faced with a legal barrier to bringing its case to justice since, pursuant to that law, any case related to the civil war period is declared inadmissible by the Algerian judicial system.

In its decision, the Human Rights Committee holds that, because of the disappearance of Bouzid Mezine, Algeria breached several provisions of theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the right to life and the right to be free from torture and other forms of ill-treatment. In doing so, Algeria also inflicted upon the family members of the disappeared person an inadmissible treatment through the severe mental distress and anguish they had to go through.

The Committee now requests Algeria “to conduct a deep and rigorous investigation into the disappearance of Mr. Bouzid Mezine”. Algeria is also requested to “provide the authors with detailed information concerning the results of its investigation”, “to free the victim immediately if he is still being secretly detained” or, “if he is deceased, to return his mortal remains to his family”. Moreover, the Committee insists on Algeria’s obligation to “indict, try and punish those responsible for the violations committed” and to pay an appropriate compensation to the family of the victim for the violations committed.

Algeria is further requested to guarantee the effectiveness of the domestic justice system, especially with respect to victims of torture, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearance and to take steps to avoid the recurrence of similar violations.

TRIAL welcomes the Committee’s recent decision hoping that it may lead to finally establish the truth about the grave human rights violations committed during the internal conflict in Algeria and pierce the veil of impunity that cloaks the perpetrators of these heinous acts.

According to Philip Grant, Director of the organisation, “because impunity has been erected as a cornerstone of Algeria’s policies in the last decade, victims of atrocities committed during the civil war have no other option than to resort to international mechanisms or to seek justice abroad. Again and again, legal bodies and courts condemn Algeria for its complete lack of compliance with international law. It is now time that Algerian authorities comply with the rule of law, undertake effective investigations on these human rights violations in order to finally disclose the truth about these tragedies, try and sanction those responsible for the crimes and grant proper redress to the victims. Impunity for these crimes cannot be the rule any more in Algeria”.

Context

This cases represents the sixth case submitted by TRIAL resulting in a final decision. In 2011 and 2012 the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture had already condemned Algeria for, respectively, four cases of enforced disappearances cases and one of death under torture. Thirteen other cases brought by TRIAL are currently pending before the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture concerning Algeria.

In total, TRIAL has submitted more than 130 cases before different international bodies (European Court of Human Rights, Human Rights Committee, Committee against Torture) related to instances of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and torture in Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Libya and Nepal.

For further information

• Decision of the Human Rights Committee in the case Mezine v. Algeria
• See the summary of the Mezine case on TRIAL’s website