By Aziz Allilou- Rabat
Algeria is still denying the requests of UN human rights experts and international human rights nongovernmental organizations to visit the country, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.
After Algiers refused the requests of five human rights organizations to visit the country, Human Rights Watch called on Algeria to uphold the values of the United Nations Human Rights Council by allowing human rights experts and international NGOs to enter the country.
In a statement on the HRW website, Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, noted that Algeria ’’remains the only country among its neighbors that generally restricts access to human rights organizations’’.
He added that since 2011, “our organizations have regularly visited Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia with few if any obstacles”.
Despite the repeated requests of the UN bodies, the Algerian authorities “have not agreed to visits by the UN Special Reporter on Torture and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International.
The report said Algerian authorities have refused to grant visas to international human rights NGOs for several years, and restrict the right of Algerian human rights organizations to operate freely.
Although Algeria adopted a new law on associations in 2012, it has not made any progress in protecting human rights.
Algeria still restricts freedom of assembly and forbids associations from receiving any foreign funding or cooperating with or seeking membership in foreign organizations without the government’s approval.
Edited by Jessica Rohan
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