The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in Promoting Human Rights. Case study : Amnesty International in Algeria (1990-2000

Abstract

Human Rights as a legal concept is a relatively recent notion in Africa. The situation of Human Rights in the African continent is generally reported to be poor, and it is seen as an area of concern according to the UN, governmental, and non-governmental observers. Algeria has been categorised by Freedom House as “not free” since it began publishing such ratings in 1972, with the exception of 1989, 1990, and 1991, when the country was labeled “partly free.” Free elections were held in the country beginning in 1988, but a victory of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the 1991 parliamentary ballot sparked a military ‘coup d'état’ and the imposition, in February 1992, of a state of emergency under which basic human rights were suspended. Freedom of expression, association, and assembly were severely restricted, and many individuals were arrested without charge and held without trial. A ‘civil war’ raged from 1991 to 1999, and since its end there have been no proper official investigations into the massive Human-Rights violations that took place during the conflict. Various NGO’s have intervened in the situation of human rights in Algeria but none of them was as eager as Amnesty to reveal the truth behind the murders, the kidnappings and the arbitrary arrests . Amnesty even called for an internationalsation of those violations in order to open the doors for international commitees to investigate in the mass massacres and the thousand people that disappeared and that the authorities denied knowing anything about. The Algerian authorities dealt carefully with the claims of the NGO’s activists, thus, the government denied any relationship with the violations that Amnesty related to security forces and self-defense groups,and in the counterpart, the authorities sustained reports of NGO’s about the responsibility of Islamic opposition groups on the same violations. The civic society including mass media, national NGO’s and people did not approve the NGO’s attitudes when emphasizing the dramatic scene of what was happening in Algeria.they even suspected Amnesty and its allies being guided by some external parts who wanted to take profit of the political chaos.