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ALERT: Further Repression Against Independent Unions In Algeria

The Algerian authorities prevented trade unionists from gathering at a demonstration of the national federation of local Authorities of the SNAPAP against the government’s economic reforms scheduled to take place in Bouira, 100 km to the south west of Algiers, on the morning of Wednesday 30 November. EuroMed Rights strongly condemns the police violence perpetrated against the activists.

According to the eyewitness account of Yamina Maghraoui, chairwoman of the Women’s Committee and member of the SNAPAP Executive Board, the demonstration was quickly dispersed by the police as soon as the first demonstrators approached the headquarters of the wilaya (head of department). All access points were subsequently blocked in order to prevent other demonstrators from joining the march.

The first activists who arrived on the square were arrested and violently herded into police trucks. Yamina Maghraoui was manhandled, and other trade unionists who refused to step into the Police vehicles were struck with truncheons.

Yamina Maghraoui and 7 other activists were detained at the police station for close to 7 hours. The questioning was limited to the methods through which the demonstration was organised. Finally, all of the activists were released in the late afternoon.

Although two other strikes and demonstrations organised in the previous days by the SNAPAP took place without violence, the fact remains that human rights activists are constantly subjected to administrative sanctions. The SNAPAP had just recently decried such sanctions at a press conference held the day before in Béjaia.

The right of assembly is regularly violated in Algeria, and trade union gatherings are dispersed, sometimes violently. Moreover, the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards reminded Algeria of its obligations on two separate occasions due to regular violations of the ILO’s Convention 87 on the freedom of association and the protection of the right to organise in 2014 and 2015.

EuroMed Rights calls on the Algerian authorities to put an end to the repression and harassment perpetrated against trade unionists and human rights defenders, and to comply with the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in particular with regard to the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly.