Algeria's Human Rights Crisis

On July 20-21, 1998, an Algerian government delegation met with the United Nations Human Rights Committee to discuss Algeria's second periodic report regarding its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In its oral presentation to the committee on July 20, the Algerian delegation insisted that "there was no crisis of human rights in Algeria" but rather "a terrorist phenomenon which violated human rights." After its review, the committee, in unusually strong language, characterized the Algerian situation precisely as a "widespread human rights crisis."