Brussels 23/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - A group of human rights associations (Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Amnesty International, International Federation for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch) have written to the high representative for foreign affairs to warn her over relations with Algeria.
These associations observe that the session of negotiations announced by Algiers on 24 June could finalise the development of an “action plan” under the association agreement and in the framework of the “neighbourhood policy”. They want the issue of human rights and the obligation to respect them to feature high up on the priority list. Their fear is that the EU, which is more interested by cooperation with Algeria in a tense economic and energy context and “increasing restrictions”, will remain silent on the political conditions accompanying the “action plans” in general.
In their letter, the four associations call on Ashton to “prioritise respect for human rights, including equality between men and women, and to call on the Algerian authorities to take action in this regard”. They go on to list all of the measures and actions they would like to see included in the text under negotiation.
Their insistence, they explain, is due to the fact that “despite numerous promises of reforms since 2011, the human rights situation in Algeria remains poor. Freedom of association and assembly and the right to peaceful process have been severely restricted and activists from both associations and trade unions have been arbitrarily prosecuted”. Furthermore, “Algeria lacks laws that adequately criminalise violence against women, while discrimination against women remains entrenched in law and in practice”. They go on to state that “Algeria's cooperation with United Nations experts and mechanisms, as well as with international human rights NGOs, remains very limited or even non-existent, despite those experts and organisations' repeated requests to visit Algeria”. (FB)