CCPR/C/112/D/2132/2012
3.10 Tarek Kerouane was 16 when he was arrested and Mohamed Kerouane 15. These
children’s arbitrary detention and the authorities’ inertia in the face of their disappearance
demonstrate that the Algerian State did not provide them with the protection proper to their
status and, in particular, that their case was not adjudicated “as speedily as possible”. They
were deprived of all contact with their family, which is a clear violation of the State’s
obligation to act in the best interests of the child, in accordance with article 24 (para. 1) and
article 10 (para. 2 (b)) of the Covenant.
3.11 Referring to the Committee’s established jurisprudence,10 the authors contend that,
by failing in its duty to make thorough and diligent inquiries into the brothers’
disappearance, to inform their relatives of the results of the inquiries and to make
appropriate reparation to the authors of this communication for the violations of their rights,
the State party has violated its positive obligations under article 2. They ask the Committee
to find that the State party has violated article 2 of the Covenant; to require prompt,
thorough and effective investigations into the disappearance of Adel, Tarek and Mohamed
Kerouane by impartial, independent bodies; to demand that Ordinance No. 06-01 be
repealed; and to demand that full and effective reparation, including restitution,
compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, public recognition of the crime against humanity
and guarantees of non-recurrence, be made to the authors.
3.12 The authors ask the Committee to order the State party: (a) to release Adel, Tarek
and Mohamed Kerouane if they are still alive; (b) to conduct a prompt, thorough and
effective investigation into their disappearance; (c) to report to the authors and their family
on the results of the investigation; (d) to prosecute, try and punish the persons responsible
for the disappearance of Adel, Tarek and Mohamed Kerouane, in conformity with the State
party’s international commitments; and (e) to provide appropriate reparation to the
beneficiaries of Adel, Tarek and Mohamed Kerouane for the grave moral and material harm
which they have suffered since their disappearance.
State party’s observations on admissibility
4.1
On 26 February 2013 the State party submitted a note verbale in which it merely
referred the Committee to “the Algerian Government’s background memorandum on the
inadmissibility of communications submitted to the Human Rights Committee in
connection with the implementation of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation”
and to its additional memorandum on the inadmissibility of the communication. These
documents had been submitted to the Committee in connection with several earlier
communications and the State party did not provide copies of the memorandum or the
additional memorandum, or any specific comments on the present communication.
4.2
The contents of these documents have been included in several previous Views
adopted by the Committee. 11 The State party asks the Committee to note how similar the
facts and situations described by the authors are and to take into account the sociopolitical
and security context at the time; to conclude that the authors 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 authors seek an alternative remedy.
10
11
GE.14-22477
Communication No. 1297/2004, Medjnoune v. Algeria, Views adopted on 14 July 2006, para. 10.
See, for example, communication No. 1931/2010, Bouzeriba v. Algeria, Views adopted on 23 July
2014, paras. 4.1 to 5.4.
9