The Moroccan Organization for Human Rights (OMDH) this week expressed strong concern about the explicit will shown by the Algerian authorities to resume capital executions, de facto suspended in the country since 1993.
In a statement, the organization warned against “the move toward resuming the application of the death penalty in Algeria” and called on preserving the right to life. The OMDH said it had learned “with concern the direction of the Algerian presidency toward revising penal legislation in order to permit the return to resuming the execution of the death penalty, after more than three decades of effective suspension of executions”.
This reaction comes after the announcements by Abdelmadjid Tebboune following the violent fires that hit several regions of the country at the end of August. On August 30, the Algerian president ordered the modification, before September 15, of the Penal Code to reestablish the execution of the death penalty against people involved in voluntary fires.
Having stated that the right to life is a fundamental right from which other rights and freedoms stem, the OMDH considers that the resumption of executions would constitute “a grave setback” in light of Algeria’s international commitments to restrict recourse to the death penalty and to its gradual abolition.
The organization cites in particular Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which recognizes to every human being an inherent right to life.
The OMDH also recalls that Algeria had voted, in December 2007, in favor of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 62/149 calling on states retaining the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolition. Algeria had even co-sponsored the draft resolution.
For Moroccans, a resumption of executions would thus place Algeria against the current of the international momentum toward abolition of the death penalty, which the OMDH describes as a “cruel and degrading punishment to dignity”.
The organization accordingly calls on the Algerian authorities to reverse this direction and to maintain the moratorium observed since 1993. It reaffirms its rejection of “any resumption of the execution of the death penalty in Algeria or in any other country”.
Finally, the Moroccan body urged regional and international human rights organizations “to act urgently to urge the Algerian authorities to abandon this path and to continue supporting the various efforts aimed at the global abolition of the death penalty around the world”.
