Lawmakers are due to vote on a proposed law that they say denounces a historical system rooted in oppression and injustice
Algeria’s parliament has opened debate on a draft law that would criminalize more than 130 years of French colonial rule in the North African country, a move reflecting deep historical grievances and intensifying tensions with Paris.
Ibrahim Boughali, speaker of the People’s National Assembly, Algeria’s lower house, presented the bill during a plenary session on Saturday, where lawmakers discussed its framework ahead of a vote expected on December 24.
“The issue of criminalizing colonialism is a cause for the entire nation,” Boughali said, describing the proposal as a “defining milestone in modern Algeria.”
In a speech during the debate, Abdelmalek Tachrift, the minister for independence war veterans and their families, said the proposed measure showed Algeria would not “compromise” on its national memory or accept any challenge to what it calls the country’s historical facts.
“This qualitative step … embodies the condemnation of a defunct colonial system based on oppression and injustice, and at the same time confirms that victorious Algeria will never … accept any tampering with or relinquishment of the facts of its history,” the minister said.
The draft comes amid a growing reparations’ drive across Africa, with the African Union calling for slavery, colonialism, and racial segregation to be recognized and criminalized.
France colonized Algeria from 1830 until the African state won independence in 1962 after a bloody war and years of repression. Relations between Algiers and Paris have soured in recent years over disputes including Western Sahara and historical memory.
France has acknowledged responsibility in specific cases linked to the war in Algeria, including the 2018 admission by President Emmanuel Macron that the state bore responsibility for the torture and death of Algerian nationalist Maurice Audin. Paris has stopped short of issuing a full, official apology for the broader history of colonial-era abuses.
According to local media, the proposed legislation seeks to classify crimes committed during the 132-year period of French rule, including killings, forced deportations, discrimination, torture, and nuclear testing, as crimes against humanity.