Algeria: TRIAL obtains condemnation in two enforced disappearances cases
Geneva, 15 February 2012.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee recently condemned Algeria in two separate cases of enforced disappearances. In November 1994, Mr. Kamel Djebrouni, 31 years old, was abducted from his home in Algiers by a group of soldiers. He has not been seen since. In May and in November 1996, the brothers Djamel and Mourad Chihoub were arrested one after the other at their home in Baraki (outskirts of Algiers). Djamel was then 19, and Mourad 16. Their fate remains unknown to this date.
The Djebrouni and Chihoub families left no stone unturned in the quest to discover the whereabouts of their beloved ones. The two cases have been brought before all the relevant judicial, political and administrative authorities.. Yet no investigation has been opened and no one has ever been indicted..
In two separate decisions (Djebrouni v. Algeria and Chihoub v. Algeria), the Human Rights Committee held that, because of the disappearances of Kamel Djebrouni and Djamel and Mourad Chihoub, Algeria violated several articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (one of the most important international conventions within the United Nations system), namely 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 families of the three disappeared persons an inadmissible treatment by way of the severe mental distress and anguish they were forced to endure.
The Committee requests Algeria “to conduct a deep and rigorous investigation into the disappearance” of Kamel Djebrouni and of Djamel and Mourad Chihoub. Algeria is also requested to “provide their families with detailed information concerning the results of its investigation”, to free them immediately if they are still being secretly detained or, if they are deceased, to return their mortal remains to their families. Moreover the Committee insists on Algeria’s obligation to “indict, put on trial and punish those responsible for the violations committed”. Algeria was also required to pay an appropriate compensation to the families of the victims for the violations committed.
The Committee especially points out that, with respect to torture, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances, the Algerian judicial authorities should not apply Order n°06-01 (adopted following the enactment of the “Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation” in 2005) which grants absolute impunity to the authors of the worst violations perpetrated during the conflict.
TRIAL expressed its satisfaction following these latest decisions by the Committee condemning Algeria. According to Philip Grant, Director of the organisation, “in Algeria impunity for crimes committed during the civil war is absolute. Not a single perpetrator has in fact ever been prosecuted. The United Nations has unmistakably reminded Algeria that such a system, even though sanctioned by national law, blatantly violates international law”. Mr. Grant added that “the international community should require that Algeria respect the international conventions that Algeria itself signed up to. The families of the three disappeared persons, just as the thousands of persons who are still waiting to know the fate of their loved ones, have a right to truth and justice.”
Context
These two cases represent the third and the fourth cases submitted by TRIAL resulting in a final decision. In May and June 2011, the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture had already condemned Algeria for, respectively, an enforced disappearance case and a case of death under torture. Another fourteen cases are currently pending before the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture concerning Algeria.
In total TRIAL has submitted more than 70 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.
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