Criminalising French Colonisation on the Senate’s Table Before Official Approval
The National People’s Assembly referred five drafts to the Council of the Nation for review and discussion. The most prominent of these is the draft criminalising French colonisation and the revocation of Algerian citizenship, which is expected to be on the Senate’s agenda starting this week.
Sources from the lower house told Echorouk that the National People’s Assembly referred the drafts in question to the upper house of parliament on Thursday. The expanded bureau of the Nation’s Council, which includes the heads of the parliamentary blocs, is expected to meet on Sunday, chaired by Azouz Nasri, to formally present these texts before referring them to the relevant committees for discussion and legal and regulatory review.
Regarding the draft criminalising French colonisation in Algeria, the same sources confirmed that the text will not be subject to substantive debate during its passage through the Nation’s Council, especially since the version approved by the National People’s Assembly last Wednesday underwent only minor stylistic and linguistic amendments, without altering its content or fundamental provisions.
Members of the National Assembly are preparing to receive a draft criminalising French colonisation, which MPs have described as a historic achievement for the ninth parliamentary term, given its political symbolism and its national and international context. This issue has remained unresolved for decades, despite numerous successive legislative and political initiatives and efforts, all of which have failed to materialise for various reasons, before finally reaching an advanced stage in the legislative process within Parliament.
The draft criminalising colonisation, comprising five chapters and 27 articles, presents a clear political and legal framework aimed at solidifying the Algerian state’s position on its colonial past. The text explicitly defines the law’s objective as criminalising French colonisation of Algeria from 1830 to 1962, defining the legal nature of the crimes committed during that period, including crimes against humanity and genocide. It also includes legal provisions holding the French government accountable for its colonial past and establishing legal and diplomatic mechanisms to demand official recognition and a formal apology for the crimes committed against the Algerian people. According to members of the National People’s Assembly, this reflects a qualitative shift in the legislative approach to the issue of national memory.
Furthermore, the draft amendment to the Nationality Law is expected to be debated within the relevant committee, given the sensitivity of its provisions. This may lead to requests for clarification of certain articles to ensure their consistency with the existing constitutional and legislative framework. In addition to these two texts, the draft laws submitted to the National Assembly include the Basic Law on the Judiciary, the Traffic Law, and the law defining the general rules for trust services in electronic transactions. These texts are part of a set of legislation approved by the National People’s Assembly last week, aimed at updating the legal system and strengthening the regulatory framework for various sectors. They now await the outcome of discussions in the upper house before final ratification will take place.
