nnnnnnnnnn CMA BP 124 – 108, rue Damremont 75018 Paris, France http://www.congres-mondial-amazigh.org – [email protected] ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ U n i t e d N a t i o n s International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) 94nd session Geneva, 20/11 – 8/12/2017 Alternative report of the CMA The discriminations against Amazighs of Algéria ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Congrès Mondial Amazigh – Organisation Internationale Non Gouvernementale 1 JO Rép. Fr. du 18/10/96 – Siret 402 775 720 00012 Preamble The Congrès Mondial Amazigh (CMA) is an international NGO that defends the rights of the Amazigh people. In order to prepare this parallel report to the periodic report submitted by the Algerian Government, the CMA relied heavily on the reports of its members and on the complaints and information directly transmitted to it by citizens and civil society. This information and individual complaints are verified by the CMA members in the country. The report's editors have also drawn their information from Algerian legislative and administrative texts as well as publications, including the press. Introduction The Amazighs (Berbers) are the indigenous people of northern Africa, with their own language, culture and history. "Amazigh" is the name given to the Amazighs by themselves and means "free man". The word Berber comes from the Latin "barbarus", used by the Romans to designate the populations who did not speak their language. The Arabs took it back and turned it into a "barbar" before the French translated it into "Berber". The presence of the Amazighs in the countries of Tamazgha (northern Africa) dates back more than 12,000 years. Over the centuries they have faced innumerable invasions: Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Spanish, Italians, Ottomans, French, who have succeeded each other on North African soil since the 10th century BC. The periods of occupation were more or less long: More than 5 centuries for the Romans at 130 years for the French. Arrived in the wake of the Phoenicians 10 centuries before the Christian era, the Jews are the only people to have introduced themselves and settled in this region without violence. On the level of religious beliefs, the Amazighs have successively experienced animism, paganism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But whatever religion is adopted, it is never practiced dogmatically but always adapted to the values of freedom, tolerance and non- violence that characterize this people. Tamazight, the Amazigh language, has existed since the earliest antiquity. It has an original writing system, tifinagh, used and preserved to this day. For several decades, all the Amazigh groups have reappropriated this ancestral writing. Currently, the Amazigh language is spoken by about 30 million speakers in northern Africa (from the Siwa oasis in Egypt to Morocco through Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Niger, Mali, northern Burkina Faso, Mauritania) and in the diaspora (mainly Europe and North America). Originally, the Amazigh occupied an immense territory ranging from Egypt to the Canary Archipelago and from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of the Niger River. Since then, Amazigh-speaking space has inexorably shrunk as the languages of the invaders have been imposed. The Arabization of North Africa, begun in the 7th century, continues inexorably today due to the policies of forced assimilation practiced by the States against the Amazighs. However, even when they have lost the use of their language as in the Canary Archipelago, the Amazighs remain firmly attached to their ancestral identity. The Amazigh peoples are now divided mainly between Morocco (about half of the total Amazigh population) and Algeria (one third). The rest is divided between Tunisia, Libya, Siwa (Egypt), the Canary Islands and the Tuareg populations (Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and 2 Mauritania). In relation to the population of each state, Amazigh speakers represent 2/3 of the population of Morocco and 1/3 of the Algerian population, approximately 13 million people in Algeria. In Algeria, the Amazigh occupy mainly the regions of Kabylia (the most important Amazigh- speaking territory of Algeria, is to the east of Algiers and counts between 6 and 8 million Kabyles), Aurès, country of the Chawis, occupies the great east of Algeria to the Algerian- Tunisian border (3 million), the Chenoua to the west of Algiers, the Sahara (Mozabites, Tuaregs ...), the Ait-Snous in the region of Tlemcen and along the border with Morocco. There are also hundreds of Amazigh communities with a few hundreds to a few thousands people, spread all over Algeria (see map in annex). It should be noted that the states of northern Africa, including Algeria, refuse to publish official demographic statistics concerning the Amazigh populations, despite the repeated requests of the organs of the UN Treaties, as the Human Rights Committee (CCPR), the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). The statistics we present in this report are based on our estimates of the Amazigh-speaking populations in the different territories and on the basis of self- identification. Refusal of recognition of indigenous status to Amazighs Algeria adopted the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and voted in favor of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, the Algerian state still refuses to recognize the indigenous status of the Amazighs of Algeria claimed for more than 20 years by the Congrès Mondial Amazigh. When the Algerian government is questioned, in particular, by the competent organs of the UN, it replies: "There are no indigenous peoples in Algeria". Yet, the Amazighs of this country have all the criteria and characteristics which make it possible to affirm that they are indeed indigenous: They self-identify as such, they have a specific language and culture, they form the first people of the this region, they are subjected to the domination, oppression, marginalization and discrimination of one State in the service of the other dominant group (the Arabs). Faced with the evidence that the Amazighs form the indigenous people of Algeria (and throughout northern Africa), Algerian authorities sometimes change their answer by saying: "We are all indigenous peoples". In this case, the Algerian government should logically assert that Algeria is Amazigh, that all Algerians are Amazighs and therefore should immediately put an end to the oppression, marginalization and discrimination inflicted on the Amazighs and a vigorous policy of promoting Amazighity in all fields. Fake recognition of the Amazigh language and culture In its preamble, the new Algerian Constitution, adopted in 2016, mentions in a paragraph "the fundamental components of its identity, Islam, Arabia and Amazighity" but in another paragraph Algeria is presented as a "land of Islam, an integral part of the Greater Maghreb, an Arab, Mediterranean and African country". It can be observed that within a few lines, Algeria has lost its "Amazighness", which testifies to this permanent lack of sincere determination of the Algerian authorities to recognize and promote the Amazigh identity of this country. What 3 progress can be expected when there is no political will? What is given by one hand is quickly picked up by the other hand. On the linguistic level, after the popular revolt in Kabylie in the spring of 2001, followed by a bloody repression which killed 126 people, a constitutional reform was adopted in 2002, allowing the introduction of article 3 bis which stipulated that "Tamazight is also national language. The State shall promote and promote its development in all its linguistic varieties used in the national territory". Following the example of Morocco, which recognized the official language status of the Amazigh language in 2011, Algeria adopted a new Constitution in 2016, Article 4 of which states that "Tamazight is also a national and official language. The State shall promote and promote its development in all its linguistic varieties used in the national territory". The text adds that "the procedures for the application of this article are laid down by an organic law". And since 2016 there has been no draft organic law on the implementation of the official character of the Amazigh language and at the same time all legislative and administrative texts that exclude the Amazigh language remain in force, in particular : - Law 91-05 of 16 January 1991 on the "generalization of the Arabic language". According to this law, only the Arabic language is admitted in all official and public spaces, including political and associative. This text is undoubtedly one of the most repressive laws in the world in this field. - Ordinance 05-07 of 23 August 2005 on private education stipulates that: "Teaching shall be compulsory in Arabic in all subjects and at all levels of education." Language teaching and / or in the Amazigh language is therefore prohibited. - Law No. 08-09 of 25 February 2008 on the Code of Civil and Administrative Procedure states: "Proceedings and judicial documents ... must be presented in Arabic or