A/HRC/19/58
Standard procedure
51.
The Working Group transmitted 37 newly-reported cases to the Government. The
majority of these cases concerned persons who allegedly disappeared between 1994 and
1995, in Jijel. Most disappearances are attributed to the military and the National
Gendarmerie.4
Information from the Government
52.
The Government transmitted three communications dated 1 December 2010, and 29
March and 4 November 2011. The first includes a reply to a prompt intervention letter sent
on 24 August 2010. In the second communication, the Government provided information
on 11 outstanding cases. The information provided was considered insufficient to lead to
their clarification. The third one was handed to the Working Group during its ninety-fifth
session and was connected to outstanding cases. The information could not be processed in
time for inclusion in the present report.
Information from sources
53.
Information was received from sources concerning 12 outstanding cases.
Prompt intervention
54.
On 1 December 2010, the Government replied to a prompt intervention letter sent
jointly with three other Special Procedures mechanisms on 24 August 2010, concerning
reports of a prohibition imposed on mothers of disappeared persons to assemble peacefully
on 4, 11 and 18 August 2010, and the alleged repression suffered by the mothers and others
demonstrating on 11 August 2010. In its communication, the Government indicated that
during the gathering of 11 August 2010, four aggressive individuals were arrested by the
police for usual checks without using violence. The Government stressed that Security
Services have not, at any moment, repressed the gatherings of the mothers of the
disappeared and that the intervention of the police officers was limited to the application of
legal means in their capacity as public forces vested with the mission to restore order in the
framework of the legislation in force. The Government indicated that it has discharged its
obligations with a certain firmness, but with much skill and tact in particular regarding
women and elderly people.
55.
The Government highlighted that the control of the demonstration was not handled
by the Republican Security Unit, equipped for this kind of interventions, but by the public
security services, including many female officers, thus ensuring a soft approach towards the
demonstrators. The Government added that no complaint was submitted by the
demonstrators and that nobody required medical assistance. In addition, the Government
stressed that the people submitting the allegations, of the pseudo association ―SOS
Disparus‖, entity with no legal status, aim at harming the reputation of the security services
and try to foster their ―cause‖, in decline after the enactment of the Charter for Peace and
National Reconciliation.
56.
Finally, the Government highlighted that the legal basis to prohibit the gatherings of
the families of the disappeared in front of the offices of the National Human Rights
Commission is based on the law 91-19, of 2 December 1991, relating to public meetings
and demonstrations, in particular its article 19, that stipulates that ―Every demonstration
carried out without prior declaration … is considered an illegal gathering (attroupement).‖
4
18
See annex V for the list of names of the newly-reported cases of disappeared persons.
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