Algeria\u2019s new law declares French colonial rule a crime, seeking accountability and reparations for the colonial past.<\/p>\n
Algeria\u2019s parliament has unanimously passed legislation<\/a> declaring France\u2019s colonisation of the country a crime.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, lawmakers stood in the chamber draped in scarves bearing the national colours, chanting \u201cLong live Algeria\u201d as they approved the bill.<\/p>\n Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n Parliament also formally demanded an apology and reparations from Paris in a move that seeks to redress attempts to sweep the issue aside.<\/p>\n The law assigns France \u201clegal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused\u201d, placing historical accountability at the centre of the state\u2019s legal framework.<\/p>\n While analysts say the law carries no enforceable international weight, its political impact is significant, signalling a rupture in how Algeria engages France over colonial memory.<\/p>\n Parliament Speaker Ibrahim Boughali said the legislation sent \u201ca clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria\u2019s national memory<\/a> is neither erasable nor negotiable\u201d, according to the APS state news agency.<\/p>\n The text catalogues crimes of French colonial rule<\/a>, including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, \u201cphysical and psychological torture\u201d and the \u201csystematic plundering of resources\u201d.<\/p>\n It also asserts that \u201cfull and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2018Crime against humanity\u2019<\/p>\n France brutally ruled Algeria from 1830 to 1962 through a system marked by torture, enforced disappearances, massacres, economic exploitation, mass killings and large-scale deportations and marginalisation of the country\u2019s indigenous Muslim population.<\/p>\n The war of independence between 1954 and 1962 alone left deep scars. Algeria puts the death toll at 1.5 million.<\/p>\n President Emmanuel Macron has previously described the colonisation of Algeria as a \u201ccrime against humanity\u201d but has consistently refused to issue a formal apology. He reiterated that position in 2023, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s not up to me to ask forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pascal Confavreux declined to comment on the parliamentary vote, saying he would not engage with \u201cpolitical debates taking place in foreign countries\u201d.<\/p>\n Hosni Kitouni, a colonial history researcher at the University of Exeter, told the AFP news agency that the law has no binding effect on France but stressed that \u201cits political and symbolic significance is important: it marks a rupture in the relationship with France in terms of memory\u201d.<\/p>\n The vote comes amid a diplomatic crisis<\/a> between the two countries.\u00a0Algeria and France maintain ties through immigration in particular, but today\u2019s vote comes amid friction in the relationship.<\/p>\n