The National Assembly approves a law criminalizing French colonialism

Members of the National Assembly approved the text of the law criminalizing the French colonization of Algeria, with reservations on 13 articles in their current form with the aim of reconsidering them and reviewing their provisions.

Members of the National Assembly, during a public session, headed by the Speaker of the Assembly, Azouz Nasseri, the Minister of Mujahideen and Rights Defenders, Abdelmalek Tachrift, and the Minister of Relations with Parliament, Najiba Djilali, voted on the text of the law criminalizing French colonialism in Algeria. With the refusal to vote on 13 articles thereof.

Council members had reservations about some provisions of the text. Especially those related to the issues of “compensation and apology,” because they are not consistent with the national direction established by the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

According to this reservation, the applicable constitutional and legal procedures will be applied to these articles, especially Article 145 of the Constitution in its fifth paragraph, and Articles 88 to 98 of the amended Organic Law No. 16-12, related to presenting them to the committee with equal members between the two chambers of Parliament.

The matter relates to Articles: 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 25 and 26, which the National Defense Committee of the Council called for “re-adjusting and re-arranging them in terms of wording and content, which requires the inclusion of a number of improvements and corrections capable of enhancing the quality of the legislation, ensuring the coherence of the text, and consolidating its legal and institutional effectiveness.”

After approving the text, the Minister of Mujahideen and People of Rights affirmed that this law expresses “the popular will and establishes a deep conviction among the Algerian people that the national memory does not accept compromise or division,” in line with the higher trends that the President of the Republic has been emphasizing in the framework of protecting and preserving the national memory.