[The following statement was issued by Alkarama, the Collective of Families of Disappeared Persons in Algeria (CFDA), and TRIAL on 22 March 2013.]
The United Nations Human Rights Committee will meet on Monday, 25 March 2013 in order to monitor the implementation of its decisions regarding cases of human rights violations. In preparation of this meeting, Alkarama, CFDA, and TRIAL wrote to the Committee denouncing the complete lack of implementation of sixteen decisions issued by the Committee condemning the Algerian government. With a united voice, the three organizations call for the adoption of strong measures to ensure that Algerian authorities initiate effective investigations into crimes of enforced disappearance and summary execution committed during the "black decade" in order to shed light on what happened and identify, prosecute, and punish the perpetrators. The victims and their families, who continue to feel the consequences of these violations to this day, must have access to effective and appropriate remedy without delay.
"The families of the disappeared have placed their trust in the Human Rights Committee by submitting to it the cases of serious human rights violations they were the victims of," said Rachid Mesli, Director of Alkarama`s Legal Department. "They now expect that the Committee`s decisions, which recognize their suffering and establish the responsibility of the Algerian state, will finally be effectively implemented."
Nassera Dutour, Director of the CFDA, notes that "families have been waiting twenty years for the return of their children and still face the silence of the authorities. The refusal to implement the Committee`s decisions is only worsened by the fact that the Algerian government continues to tarnish the memory of the victims. It is high time for the Algerian authorities to hear the suffering of the families of the disappeared and that appropriate answers be given to them."
"The United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in favor of the victims in these sixteen cases, after a thorough and impartial review of their complaints," said Philip Grant, Director of TRIAL. "The Algerian authorities must therefore comply with the Committee`s findings and uphold their international obligations urgently. Impunity for serious human rights violations must end, and the rights of the victims and their families must be fully restored. They have suffered enough!"