Algeria

2015: Attended the state consultations on the SSD in Geneva – led by Norway.

Supportive statement at Apr 2014 all-state meeting in Geneva and briefing with African Ambass (Nov ’14). Several contacts with Gva expert during SSD consultations (Aurélie). Main concern was initially the application of the SSD to other situations of violence”. After the change was made, still non-committal. Not keen to follow Germany’s position, but remaining concerns with potential “ingerence” by external actors feared, in particular with respect to bullet points on data collection, investigation and prosecution and periodic meetings to review progress. Attempts to have meeting in capital unfruitful. Aurélie continues to maintain the dialogue open with the Gva mission, whenever there are updates or events, they show interest (attended the safe schools event in Dec 2015) but still no movement on endorsement. The SRSG-CAAC (Algerian herself) is briefed on Algeria’s position and offered to raise the issue with her contacts in the government.

January 2017: Meeting between Peter and Doha embassy. Peter met with Ms. Sabrina Mokhtari who is in charge of multilateral affairs. The purpose was to introduce and advocate for the Safe Schools Declaration and to provide some information on the upcoming international conference in Argentina. He emphasized the fact that only a handful of the MENA region countries have endorsed the Declaration and encouraged Algeria to become a leader of the Safe Schools initiative in North Africa. Ms. Mokhtari had worked at the Human Rights Department of the Algerian MFA before being posted to Doha and showed good knowledge of the human rights agenda. She confirmed that Algeria is a State Party to 8 out of 9 core human rights treaties and has always had special interest in education. Reminded her of an active role of the Algerian Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva in the preparatory process which lead to the adoption of the Declaration. Also referred to the statement of Leila Zerrougui (Algerian) made at the 20th anniversary of the Graca Machel report, appraising the Declaration as one of the main achievements during her mandate. Ms. Mokhtari promised to bring our messages to the Ambassador as well as the capital. The delegation of Algeria will participate in the human rights conference in Doha in late February. Invited them to attend PEIC working group on education on 21 September. Also offered readiness to meet them bilaterally if there’s an interest in more details on the Declaration or the Guidelines.

February 2017: Advocacy meeting with GVA mission. Very familiar with process. Said that he’d previously recommended to capital that they endorse, but that the person who was responsible for making the decision changed positions before doing so, and so process stalled. He still seemed interested and supportive. And we suggested that announcing Algeria’s endorsement during Leila Zerrougui’s final briefing to the HRC in March would be a great show of appreciation for her work.

March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools. Ambassador attended the lunch hosted by Norway’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Laila Bokhari in the margins of the Conference and raised a question regarding the use of the word “combatants” in GCPEA’s French translation of the Guidelines. The word “combatants” is not used in the English version, and the French version is an unofficial GCPEA translation. GCPEA consulted with Norway and, on their advice, is seeking advice on the matter from ICRC.

April 2017: Meeting in Geneva with Bede (HRW) and Gisela. Expert is supportive, but no progress on their position. GCPEA is considering a visit to capital.

June 2017: Human Rights Watch issued a letter to Algeria responding to questions they had raised about the use of the term “combattantes” to describe “fighting forces” in the unofficial French translation of the Guidelines. The letter clarified that the French term was used because no direct translation of “fighting forces” exists in French. Advice was received from the ICRC.

September 2017: GCPEA emailed the Geneva expert to provide an update on recent developments and enquire if a visit to capital would be possible/helpful. The expert pledged to brief a colleague who was travelling from capital to Geneva. GCPEA sought meetings in capital through the Geneva Mission but was advised that this should be revisited later.

October 2017: Expert emailed to advise that “although they are aware of the importance of the Declaration and the noble objective behind it”, a visit to capital should be delayed to a later stage.

April 2018: Human Rights Watch made a submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Algeria’s Compliance with the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, recalling Algeria’s engagement with the Declaration and Guidelines to date and calling on the government to endorse. GCPEA shared it with the expert in the Geneva Mission.

May 2018: During the review by the Committee on the Rights of the Child of Algeria’s Compliance with the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, one of the Committee experts, Suzanne Aho Assouma, congratulated Algeria on its participation in all the conferences on the Guidelines but regretted that the State party had not taken a clear position on this issue and had not signed the Safe Schools Declaration. The Expert requested more details on this matter. The delegation confirmed that Algeria had been involved in all conferences but expressed regret that amendments to the text submitted by Algeria had not been taken into account. Furthermore, there were two different texts – one was the Guidelines and the other was the Declaration. Algeria had been aligned with the Guidelines, even though the final text went beyond the initial proposal. The delegate also stated that schools were never used for military purposes in Algeria and that the National People’s Army had its own infrastructure for military purposes.

July 2018: Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018).

February 2019: GCPEA met with the Advisor and the First Secretary from the Mission in Geneva. The expert who had been covering the issue, and who had previously recommended endorsement to capital, is no longer in the Mission. GCPEA provided a general overview of the Declaration and the Guidelines and encouraged their attendance at the Spain conference. They were interested to know why other countries in the North Africa region and the majority of Arab countries haven’t yet endorsed. GCPEA shared a copy of the 2017 Human Rights Watch letter responding to questions they had raised about the use of the term “combattantes” in French. Follow-up: GCPEA followed up in writing, sharing a letter for the Foreign Minister.

March 2019: attended GCPEA side-event on “Better Protecting Women and Girls from Attacks on Education” in Geneva.

March 2020: During the consultions on the GA Res on International Day to Protect Education for Attack:
Recognizing the importance of ensuring inclusive and 12 years of equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all (PP6). Russia wanted this PP to be revised, supported by Algeria, India, Iran to not include reference to 12 years of education, through stating that there is no basis for that it should be 12 years. The Safe School Declaration (SSD) PP7 – Egypt, Iran, Algeria, Russia and Indonesia opposed including reference to the SSD. The argument was that the SSD is not a UN negotiated process, and should hence go. The US stated that while it is not a signatory to the SSD, it should stay since it does not impose any action on member states, it is only a factual para.

November 2020: Norway Ambassador in Geneva met with his Algerian counterpart who expressed support for SSD and was surprised to hear that Algeria was not on the list of endorsers. We encouraged Norway to asj them to send the official letter so they can finalise the endorsement.

December 2020: GCPEA (Yatasha) met with the first secretary: humanitarian affairs at the Algeria Mission in Geneva. The meeting also follows a meeting between the newly appointed Norwegian Ambassador and the Algerian Ambassador, and the latter was surprised that they had not endorsed yet. GCPEA highlighted previous engagement, provided an overview of GCPEA, EUA findings and recommendations, SSD endorsement and global developments The Nigeria conference was highlighted and Algeria is particularly interested in a regional approach towards the conference. On endorsement, while the first secretary was generally positive at this level, he will still need to convince his capital to endorse which may take time- noting that defense and education and other relevant ministries beyond MFA need to be engaged. GCPEA followed-up with a formal letter to the Ambassador in Geneva with further information, including the endorsement process. He also advised that it will be a good idea for GCPEA to brief the Africa Group in Geneva. Going forward, GCPEA will continue to follow-up with Algeria and also work to an Africa Group briefing with the humanitarian/human rights experts and mobilize around the International Conference.

March 2021: Made reference to the SSD during the ID with the SRSG on CAAC.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.

March 2023: During ID with SRSG CAAC (52 HRC) national statement: We have acceded to the Safe Schools Declaration to protect students and teachers so that even in times of armed conflicts students can continue to go to school