CCPR/C/112/D/2098/2011
particular, article 45 of Ordinance No. 06-01 — rules out the possibility that any effective
and available domestic remedies exist in Algeria to which the families of victims of
disappearance could have recourse. On this basis, the author believed he did not need to
bring the matter before the relevant courts, in view of their likely position and findings
regarding the application of the Ordinance. However, the author cannot invoke this
Ordinance and its implementing legislation as a pretext for failing to institute the legal
proceedings available to him. The State party recalls the Committee’s jurisprudence to the
effect that a person’s subjective belief in, or presumption of, the futility of a remedy does
not exempt that person from the requirement to exhaust all domestic remedies. 5
4.6
The State party then turns its attention to the nature, principles and content of the
Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation and its implementing legislation. It maintains
that, in accordance with the principle of the inalienability of peace, which has become an
international right to peace, the Committee should support and consolidate peace and
encourage national reconciliation with a view to strengthening States affected by domestic
crises. As part of this effort to achieve national reconciliation, the State party adopted the
Charter, and its implementing Ordinance prescribes legal measures for the discontinuance
of criminal proceedings and the commutation or remission of sentences for any person who
is found guilty of acts of terrorism or who benefits from the provisions of the legislation on
civil dissent, except for persons who have committed or been accomplices in mass killings,
rapes or bombings in public places. The Ordinance also helps to address the issue of
disappearances by introducing a procedure for filing an official finding of presumed death,
which entitles beneficiaries of disappeared persons to receive compensation as victims of
the “national tragedy”. In addition, social and economic measures have been put in place,
including the provision of employment placement assistance and compensation for all
persons considered victims of the “national tragedy”. Finally, the Ordinance prescribes
political measures, such as a ban on holding political office for any person who exploited
religion in the past in a way that contributed to the “national tragedy”, and establishes the
inadmissibility of individual or collective proceedings brought against members of any
branch of the defence and security forces of Algeria for actions undertaken to protect
persons and property, safeguard the nation and preserve its institutions.
4.7
In addition to the establishment of funds to compensate all victims of the “national
tragedy”, the sovereign people of Algeria have, according to the State party, agreed to a
process of national reconciliation as the only way to heal the wounds inflicted. The State
party insists that the proclamation of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation
reflects a desire to avoid confrontation in the courts, media outpourings and political scoresettling. The State party is therefore of the view that the author’s allegations are covered by
the comprehensive domestic settlement mechanism provided for in the Charter.
4.8
The State party asks the Committee to note how similar the facts and situations
described by the author are to those described by the authors of the previous
communications concerned by the memorandum of 3 March 2009 and to take account of
the sociopolitical and security context in which they occurred. It also asks the Committee to
find that the author failed to exhaust all domestic remedies; to recognize that the authorities
of the State party have established a comprehensive domestic mechanism for processing
and settling the cases referred to in these communications through measures aimed at
achieving peace and national reconciliation that are consistent with the principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and subsequent covenants and conventions; to find the
communication inadmissible; and to request that the author seek an alternative remedy.
5
GE.14-24393
The State party cites, in particular, communications No. 210/1986 and No. 225/1987, Pratt and
Morgan v. Jamaica, Views adopted on 6 April 1989.
7