Navi Pillay : « Algeria agrees to UN probe mission on those unaccounted for in anti-terrorism struggle

UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay has said her 2-day visit to Algeria aims at learning more about the situation of human rights as well as the efforts made by the Algerian government to address them, and offering technical assistance by the UN office to ensure that Algeria complies with international human rights standards.

• UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay has said her visit to Algeria aims at learning more about the situation of human rights as well as the efforts made by the Algerian government to address them, and offering technical assistance by the UN office to ensure that Algeria complies with international human rights standards.
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• She also said that the Algerian government had accepted to receive a UN technical mission aimed at helping shedding light on those people still reported missing as part of the counter-terrorism struggle since the early nineties in Algeria.
• In a separate file, Visiting UN official Navi Pillay told a press conference in Algiers that the situation in Mali and Syria requires “political solution”.
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• “The situation in both Mali and Syria requires a political solution,” the UN officer told a joint press conference with Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci. She added that before she came to Algeria, she has sent a detailed report to the Human Rights Council about the dire situation in northern Mali still controlled by the rebels.
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• Pillay said that “I have called for the international community to take immediate steps to address the situation in Mali, because it is a crisis situation both in terms of human right violation, and humanitarian violation in terms of access to food and water.”
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• Mali currently faces a political crisis and problems in the northern regions that are occupied by rebels. According to the UN, a total of 4.6 million people and 175,000 children are at risk from severe acute malnutrition in the country.
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• Meanwhile, the UN commissioner said her visit aims at learning more about the situation of human rights as well as the efforts made by the Algerian government to address them, and offering technical assistance by the UN office to ensure that Algeria complies with international human rights standards.
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• Pillay started on Monday a three-day working visit to Algeria at the invitation of the government. It is the first visit of a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Algeria. During her visit, Pillay is due to meet with top Algerian government officials and civil society associations to inquire deeply on the situation of human rights in this North African nation.