On 20 November 2025, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, after a vote in its Third Committee. The text reaffirmed that the prohibition of torture is absolute and cannot be restricted by emergency or security justifications. This decision has renewed attention on Algeria, which has been party to the Convention against Torture since 1989 but continues to face serious allegations of torture, ill treatment and abusive use of security laws.
For several years, international and Algerian organisations have documented a pattern of repression that affects protesters, trade unionists, journalists and human rights defenders. Amnesty International has described a relentless crackdown on dissent, in which people linked to the Hirak movement or to peaceful criticism of the authorities have been arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned. The United States 2024 human rights report on Algeria lists torture or cruel and degrading treatment by state agents, arbitrary arrest and detention, and prison conditions that raise serious concerns. Earlier assessments presented to the UN Committee against Torture also drew attention to secret detention by security services and the use of counter terrorism laws in a way that exposes detainees to a high risk of abuse.
Recent cases followed by SHOAA for Human Rights illustrate how these concerns are playing out today. Nineteen organisations, including SHOAA, have called for the immediate release of trade unionist and human rights defender Ali Mammeri and the quashing of his fifteen year prison sentence. They also requested an independent, impartial and effective investigation into his allegations of torture and enforced disappearance, with a view to holding those responsible to account. In another case, SHOAA has urged an urgent and transparent investigation into the treatment of Yacine Benchattah and Hadjer Zitouni, former senior staff at the Algerian Red Crescent, after testimonies reported humiliation, degrading treatment and psychological pressure inside the National Gendarmerie investigation unit in Bir Mourad Rais in Algiers.
These are not isolated incidents. UN experts have previously expressed concern about allegations of sexual assault, torture and ill treatment of a Hirak protester, as well as the subsequent harassment and arrest of activists who supported the victim. Amnesty International has called on the authorities to end the prosecution of activists who exposed the torture of a child in police custody, including testimony that referred to attempted rape. Civil society briefs presented to the Human Rights Council describe thousands of arrests linked to peaceful protest and a climate in which speaking about abuses can itself trigger reprisals.
At the structural level, Algeria has not ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and has no national preventive mechanism that can carry out regular independent visits to all places of detention. Human rights groups warn that extended police custody in terrorism related cases, combined with limited access to lawyers and the absence of systematic medical and judicial safeguards, creates conditions that facilitate torture and ill treatment and make documentation and accountability extremely difficult.
In this context, the General Assembly resolution adopted on 20 November is more than a symbolic reaffirmation of existing law. It is a reminder that Algeria has clear obligations to prevent torture in all circumstances, to investigate every allegation promptly and independently, to protect victims and witnesses from reprisals, and to ensure that no confession obtained under torture is used in court. Cases such as those of Ali Mammeri, Yacine Benchattah and Hadjer Zitouni, together with earlier emblematic incidents linked to the Hirak movement, show that these obligations are not abstract. They are concrete duties that require transparent investigations, effective remedies and structural reforms, including stronger safeguards in detention and independent monitoring of all places where people are deprived of liberty.
