Algeria parliament debates criminalizing French colonialism

• Algeria’s parliament prepares to publicly debate a bill criminalizing French colonial rule.
• The draft law details colonial crimes, demands recognition, apology, and reparations.
  
  

Algeria’s National People’s Assembly is set to debate next week a proposed law that would criminalize French colonial rule in Algeria from 1830 to 1962, marking the first time such legislation is discussed in a public parliamentary session.

In a statement issued after a meeting chaired by Assembly Speaker Ibrahim Boughali, the parliament said the general session devoted to the proposal will be held on Dec. 21. The agenda includes the formal presentation of the bill, a preliminary report, and interventions by the heads of parliamentary blocs.

Broad political consensus

Boughali said the move reflects a broad consensus across Algeria’s political spectrum and comes “in honor of the memory of our righteous ancestors, from the generation of resistance to the generation of the glorious liberation revolution”.

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A seven-member parliamentary committee drafted the proposal, including six representatives of parliamentary blocs and one independent lawmaker. The committee was formally appointed on March 23 and granted access to experts, legal specialists, historians, and researchers working on colonial crimes and memory issues.

The bill is expected to be put to a vote on Dec. 24, alongside other legislative proposals, according to the Assembly.

Defining colonial crimes

The draft law, a copy of which was reviewed by Al Jazeera, consists of 27 articles and classifies French colonialism as a “state crime that violates human principles and values”. It calls on the Algerian state to uncover, document, and publish historical truths related to the colonial period.

The proposal lists thirty categories of crimes, including premeditated killing, deliberate military attacks on civilians, the use of internationally banned weapons, landmine deployment, nuclear testing, extrajudicial executions, torture, forced displacement, abductions, and the confinement of civilians in camps.

It also cites the plundering of Algeria’s treasury, destruction of property, denial of education and public office, sexual violence, forced religious conversion, desecration of places of worship, and systematic efforts to erase national identity.

Accountability, reparations, and memory

The bill states that colonial crimes committed against the Algerian people are not subject to a statute of limitations. It also labels collaboration with colonial authorities by so-called “Harkis” as an act of high treason under Algerian law.

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Article eight assigns legal responsibility to the French state for its colonial past in Algeria, explicitly raising the issues of official recognition and apology. The proposal affirms compensation as a legitimate right of the Algerian state and people.

It also calls for the cleanup of radioactive nuclear test sites, the handover of maps related to nuclear explosions, chemical tests, and landmines, and the recovery of looted state funds, national archives, and the remains of resistance figures. Any glorification of colonialism would be criminalized under the law.

Strained relations with France

The parliamentary move comes amid one of the most severe crises in Algerian-French relations in years. Tensions have escalated following Paris’ recognition of Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara, a position Algeria strongly opposes while backing the Polisario Front’s call for self-determination.

Relations between Algiers and Paris have long been volatile, particularly over unresolved colonial legacy files. Algerian officials accuse France of refusing to address the lasting damage caused by 132 years of colonial rule, a stance that continues to fuel diplomatic friction between the two countries.