CCPR/C/112/D/2026/2011
circumstances,7 given that he was deprived of the capacity to exercise the rights guaranteed
to him by law or to have recourse to any remedy, in violation of article 16 of the Covenant.
3.9
In addition, the author argues that the conduct of a search without a warrant,
followed by the looting and destruction of the family’s home, is an arbitrary and unlawful
interference with their privacy and home, which constitutes a violation of article 17 of the
Covenant with regard to the author, her husband and the rest of the family. 8
3.10 The author says that the incomplete and erroneous results of the inquiries
purportedly carried out by the State party’s authorities into her husband’s fate show that
there had been no reliable investigation. She recalls that the authorities initially denied that
her husband had been arrested. Later they stated that he had been killed by security forces
on 19 May 1996, whereas the author had been in contact with him as late as 3 June 1996.
Finally, the authorities claimed that he had died as a member of a terrorist group on 18 May
1996, the very day of his arrest, which blatantly contradicted all first-hand accounts of his
arrest and the initial statements made by the authorities. The author argues that the State
party has violated its obligations to act on all complaints of serious violations of rights
guaranteed under the Covenant, to carry out prompt, impartial, thorough and effective
investigations, and to inform the author of the results of such investigations. The author
therefore considers that she has not had recourse to an effective remedy before the
authorities of the State party, in violation of article 2, paragraph 3, of the Covenant.
3.11 Lastly, the author notes that the Committee has correctly interpreted Ordinance No.
06-01 as an instrument whose aim is to promote impunity and infringe the right to an
effective remedy. The adoption of this Ordinance reinforces the inefficiency and bias of the
Algerian judicial system and deprives the author of all remedies available at the national
level, in violation of article 2 (para. 3) of the Covenant, read alone and in conjunction with
articles 6 (para. 1), 7, 9, 10 (para. 1), 16 and 17 of the Covenant.
3.12 The author asks the Committee to order the State party: (a) to release Rachid
Sassene if he is still alive; (b) to conduct a prompt, thorough and effective investigation into
his disappearance; (c) to report to the author and her family on the results of the
investigation; (d) to prosecute, try and punish the persons responsible for Rachid Sassene’s
disappearance, in conformity with the State party’s international commitments; and (e) to
provide appropriate reparation to Rachid Sassene’s beneficiaries, including compensation,
restitution, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, for the grave moral
and material harm which they have suffered since his disappearance.
State party’s observations on admissibility
4.1
On 4 May 2011, the State party contested the admissibility of the present
communication, referring to the background memorandum of the Algerian Government on
the inadmissibility of individual communications submitted to the Human Rights
Committee in connection with the implementation of the Charter for Peace and National
Reconciliation, which was first sent to the Committee on 3 March 2009, and also to its
additional memorandum of 30 August 2010.9
7
8
9
6
Atamna v. Algeria, para. 7.8; communications No. 1640/2007, El Abani v. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,
Views adopted on 26 July 2010, para. 7.9; and No. 1495/2006, Madoui v. Algeria, Views adopted on
28 October 2008, para. 7.7.
Communications No. 1460/2006, Yklymova v. Turkmenistan, Views adopted on 20 July 2009, para.
7.6; No. 915/2000, Ruzmetov v. Uzbekistan, Views adopted on 30 March 2006, para. 7.9; No.
687/1996, Rojas García v. Colombia, Views adopted on 3 April 2001, para. 10.3; and No. 778/1997,
Coronel et al. v. Colombia, Views adopted on 24 October 2002, para. 9.7.
See, for example, communication No. 1899/2009, Terafi v. Algeria, Views adopted on 21 March 2014,
paras. 4.1 to 4.9.
GE.14-24387