Search Results for: algeria

The US Department of State Wednesday removed Nigeria from its “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) list, which designates countries with “particularly severe” religious freedom concerns. This decision preceded Secretary Antony Blinken’s visit to Nigeria on Thursday and Friday to “discuss furthering cooperation on global health security, expanding energy access and economic growth, and revitalizing democracy.” [...]

Five international rights groups are urging Algerian authorities to drop their effort to dissolve a prominent civil society group over alleged violation of the law on associations, Human Rights Watch stated in a report on Monday. The five rights organizations are Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies, the International [...]

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation on Wednesday condemned the African Union (AU) Commission’s decision to award Israel observer status. Israel obtained the observer status last week when Aleleign Admasu, Israel’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, presented his credentials as an observer to the AU. At the same time, HE Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of [...]

Algeria is set to ban unauthorized protests following the Hirak movement, which has seen hundreds of thousands participate in protests over the past two years, according to an announcement published on Sunday. The Hirak movement is a successful pro-democracy group of peaceful protesters. In 2019, the movement engaged in widespread peaceful protests to speak out [...]

Protesters filled the streets of Algiers on Friday as the pro-democracy Hirak movement regained momentum after a year-long break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hirak, meaning “movement” in Arabic, was formed in 2019 to oppose former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s run for a fifth term. The non-partisan movement aims for systemic change that includes judicial independence and the rule [...]

An Algerian military appeals court on Saturday acquitted three top officials who were jailed in 2019 during mass protests. On trial was Said Bouteflika, brother of the country’s longtime former leader, and two ex-intelligence chiefs, General Mohamed Lamine Mediene and his former right hand General Athmane Tartag. Also on trial was Louisa Hanoune, who had [...]

The president of Algeria signed on Friday a presidential decree formally promulgating the recent amendment to the constitution. The new Constitution was adopted in November through a referendum and was awaiting presidential assent, which has been granted by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s Friday signature. The major amendments include provisions which allow renewal of presidential term only once [...]

The European Parliament has passed a resolution on “the deteriorating situation of human rights in Algeria.” The resolution focused on the imprisonment of journalist Mohamed Khaled Drareni.  Through this resolution, the European Parliament condemned “the escalation of arbitrary and unlawful arrests, detentions, and judicial harassment of journalists, human rights defenders, trade unionists, lawyers, civil society, and peaceful [...]

Algerian voters approved major amendments to the country’s constitution Sunday. The referendum took place on the anniversary of the start of Algeria’s war for independence from France in 1954. Capitalizing on the timing, one campaign slogan said “November 1954: Liberation. November 2020: Change.” The National Independent Elections Authority (ANIE) announced on Monday that the revised [...]

An Algerian court on Monday sentenced journalist Khaled Drareni to three years in prison for speaking out against the government. Drareni, who is well known in Algeria and has a twitter account of roughly 150,000 followers, reported on the Hirak protest movement, where Algerians are speaking out against the rule of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and [...]