At a time when international NGOs double their mobilization in order to protect human right defenders in countries where this protection fails, the IFHR has once again denounced Algeria for repressing a peaceful demonstration organized on 26 May in Tizi-Ouzou.
The Observatory for the protection of human right defenders, a joint program of the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR) and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), has thus condemned the repression of a peaceful march, organized on 26 May in Tizi-Ouzou, in order to denounce the impunity of the people responsible for the “black spring” (“printemps noir”) event, recalling the harmful memory of April 2001. During these events, Algerian security forces repressed in a bloody way huge demonstrations, causing 125 victims and thousands of injured and disabled people.

The Observatory has condemned the repression of the 26 May demonstration, considering that Algerian authorities prevented the members of the Coordination of Arches, Districts and Communes (CADC) of Tizi-Ouzou from carrying on their legitimate activities of combating the impunity of the people responsible for the events of the “black spring”. The Police force intervention has caused a dozen of injuries, including parents of the 2001 victims, who were more than 60 years old. The Observatory has considered that such a peaceful march was so legitimate especially that its objective lied in simply “claiming the respect of the right to justice, taking responsibility for the 2001 injured people, repairing damages incurred by traders and respecting the State’s engagements following the agreements negotiated in 2005 with the citizen movement”. 
The Observatory has finally recalled that the “freedom of peaceful meeting and public demonstration is not yet guaranteed in Algeria”. It asked the Algerian authorities to put an end to all sorts of repression or intimidation aiming to prevent public gatherings.