Overview
- Algeria’s parliament approved the measure on December 24, assigning France legal responsibility for abuses during 1830–1962 and formally demanding an apology and compensation.
- The text catalogs alleged crimes including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, torture and resource plunder, and it declares no statute of limitations for colonial‑era offenses.
- The law orders restitution measures such as returning Algerian archives and property taken to France, providing detailed maps of nuclear test sites from 1960 to 1966, and repatriating resistance fighters’ remains.
- It criminalizes glorifying colonialism with penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to one million dinars, and it penalizes attacks on resistance symbols and remarks with colonial connotations.
- France condemned the move as a “manifestly hostile initiative,” and the step deepens a strained relationship shaped by France’s 2024 stance on Western Sahara and a broader African push for colonial accountability.