The Indigenous World 2026: Algeria

Written on 22 April 2026. Posted in Algeria

The Amazighs are the Indigenous people of Algeria and other countries of North Africa. The Algerian government does not, however, recognize the Indigenous status of the Amazighs and refuses to publish statistics on their population. Because of this, there is no official data on the number of Amazighs in Algeria.

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in

On the basis of demographic data drawn from the territories in which Tamazightspeaking populations live, associations defending and promoting the rights of Amazigh people estimate the Tamazightspeaking population to be around 12 million people, a third of Algeria’s total population. The Amazighs of Algeria are concentrated in five territories: Kabylia in the northeast (Kabyls represent around 50% of Algeria’s Amazigh population), Aurès in the east, Chenoua, a mountainous region on the Mediterranean coast to the west of Algiers, M'zab in the south (Taghardayt), and Tuareg territory in the Sahara (Tamanrasset, Adrar, Djanet). Many small Amazigh communities also exist in the southwest (Tlemcen, Bechar, etc.) and in other places scattered throughout the country. It is also important to note that large cities such as Algiers, Oran, Constantine, etc., are home to several hundred thousand people who are historically and culturally Amazigh but who have been partly Arabized over the years, succumbing to a gradual process of acculturation and assimilation.

The Indigenous populations can primarily be distinguished from Arab inhabitants by their language (Tamazight) but also by their way of life and their culture (clothes, food, songs and dances, beliefs, etc.). After decades of demands and popular struggles, the Amazigh language was finally recognized as a “national and official language” in Algeria’s Constitution in 2016. But, in reality, the Amazigh identity continues to be marginalized and folklorized by state institutions. Officially, Algeria is still presented as an “Arab country” and “land of Islam”, and antiAmazigh laws are still in force (such as the 1992 Law of Arabization).

Internationally, Algeria has ratified the main international standards, and it voted in favour of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007. These texts remain unknown to the vast majority of citizens,  however, and thus not enforced, which has led to the UN treaty-monitoring bodies making numerous observations and recommendations to Algeria urging it to meet its international commitments.

Changes in the Algerian legislative framework

Human rights organizations and UN bodies deemed Law No. 1206 of 12 January 2012 on associations1 highly restrictive of the right to freedom of association, and a draft organic law was present

ed by the government to civil society organizations in January 2025, for debate and enrichment. The aim is to replace the 2012 law with a new one more in line with international standards. A number of human rights organizations have, however, strongly criticized the bill. Human Rights Watch and seven other NGOs stated that “The draft bill [...] does not address provisions in existing law that violate the right to freedom of association and instead introduces additional restrictions and strengthens government control over organizations in the country.”2 This is contrary to international standards, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. Added to this is the fact that the civil society organizations that took part in the consultations organized by the government were all organizations that are collaborating with government departments.

On 03 August 2025, the Algerian parliament adopted a new Code of Criminal Procedure3 to replace the old code dating from 1966. According to the Ministry of Justice, the new code aims to “reinforce the rights and freedoms of individuals and strengthen the right to defence”. Many human rights organizations have nonetheless denounced an excessive concentration of judicial power in the hands of the Public Prosecutor, who has the power to “investigate, charge, instruct and convict”. The Union Nationale des Ordres des Avocats Algériens (UNOA) [Algerian Lawyers’ Association] has also deplored the fact that the Ministry of Justice has ignored its recommendations. For UNOA, the new Code of Criminal Procedure contains provisions “contrary to the principles of fair justice and the constitutional rights of citizens”.⁴ 

Serious human rights violations continue

2025 saw the continuation of the same repressive policy against anyone who acts or expresses an opinion critical of the Algerian government.

On 14 January 2025, Massinissa Lakhal, a young activist for Kabyle rights, was arrested in TiziWezzu, Kabylia. He was prosecuted for publications in favour of the Kabylia selfdetermination movement. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on the basis of article 87 bis of the Penal Code and detained in TiziWezzu prison.
On 30 January 2025, Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders declared: “More than a year after I visited Algeria – at the end of 2023 – I am deeply disappointed to see that human rights defenders in different fields of work, some of whom I met, are still being arbitrarily arrested, judicially harassed, intimidated and criminalised for their peaceful activities under vaguely worded provisions, such as ‘harming the security of the State’.”5 Mary Lawlor presented her report on her visit to Algeria to the 58th session of the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/58/53/Add.1).
On 03 March 2025, Ms Wafia Tidjani, a tourism professional and campaigner for the protection of nature and solidaritybased tourism in Kabylia and other Amazigh territories of Algeria, was arrested and charged with “undermining national unity” and “publishing false news”. Pending trial, she has been remanded in custody at Koléa prison, near Algiers.
Once again this year, as in the last five years, the Tafsut Imazighen (Amazigh Spring) celebrations, traditionally held on 20 April, could not take place because of a ban by the Algerian authorities. This is a serious violation of the Amazigh people's right to keep their collective memory and traditions alive.
On 21 June 2025, the Rectorat de Vgayet in Kabylia (the administrative body that manages higher education at the local level) banned the defence of student Samir Larabi's doctoral thesis in sociology for “not conforming to the values of the Algerian Constitution”. The thesis focused on “the Amazigh question and its evolution towards selfdetermination for Kabylia”. This subject had nonetheless been validated by the university's scientific authorities. For the author of the thesis, this is simply unacceptable administrative censorship.6
On 05 July 2025, Christophe Gleizes, a French journalist who had gone to Kabylia to report on the local soccer team, was arrested and prosecuted for “apology for terrorism and a relationship with a political leader of the Movement for the SelfDetermination of Kabylie (MAK)”. He was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment at the Court of First Instance, a sentence upheld on appeal on 03 December 2025. He is being held in TiziWezzu prison.
On 25 December 2025, Kamira Nait Sid, former copresident of the Amazigh World Congress (CMA), was summoned to appear before the Algiers Criminal Court for a retrial following the decision of the Algerian Supreme Court on 28 March 2024, which overturned her threeyear prison sentence handed down in 2022. During the trial, the prosecution dropped several charges, including “belonging to a terrorist organization” and “undermining national unity”. At the end of the hearing, the court sentenced Ms Nait Sid to two years' imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Dinars (around 500 USD). Having already served a threeyear prison sentence between 2021 and 2024, she walked out of court free.
Thousands of Amazighs are banned from leaving Algeria. Those who live abroad avoid returning home for fear of not being able to leave. The NGO MENA Rights Group considers that Algeria uses travel bans as a ‘tool of mass repression’”.7

Hate speech and discrimination against Amazighs

On 01 May 2025, Mohamed Lamine Belghit, a history teacher in Algeria, declared on the Sky News Arabia television channel that “Amazigh culture does not exist” and that it was a “FrancoZionist creation”. On 03 May 2025, the DarElBeida court near Algiers ordered his arrest and provisional detention for “undermining national unity and disseminating hate speech and discrimination”. On 03 July 2025, the court sentenced him to five years in prison. On 07 October, the Algiers Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to three years' imprisonment and a 2year suspended sentence. On 11 December 2025, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, making his conviction final. Four days later, on 15 December, to everyone's surprise, the Algerian Head of State, Mr. Tebboune, granted him a pardon and Mr. Belghit regained his freedom. In fact, Mr. Belghit benefited from an exceptionally rapid judicial process, as he spent only two months in pretrial detention, whereas the average length of remand for Amazigh prisoners is around 16 months. Moreover, according to several Amazigh organizations, including the Amazigh World Congress, “by granting his 'presidential pardon' to Mr. Belghit, who has offended the Amazigh people, the Algerian Head of State is demonstrating his lack of loyalty to and solidarity with the Amazighs, and at the same time showing his support for the IslamoPanArabist movement, which constitutes discrimination against the Amazighs of Algeria”.8

During his preaching on 22 December 2025, the imam of the Errahma Mosque in Cherarba, Eucalyptus Commune, near Algiers, called for the “necessary erasure” of everything Amazigh in Algeria, justifying this by the fact that “it was colonial France that invented the Amazigh culture to weaken Arabness”. The imam who made these racist and stigmatizing remarks about Amazighs has not been prosecuted, nor has he suffered any judicial or administrative sanction.

Peace and security threatened

The Amazighs' refusal to give up their collective rights has led to the reinforcement of Algerian security forces. In the absence of statistics on the subject, observations made by civil society organizations show a disproportionate presence of Algerian security forces (military, gendarmes, police). In protest areas such as Kabylia, there are an excessive number of permanent and temporary barracks, fixed and mobile roadblocks, day and night patrols in towns and villages, in cultivated fields and forests. Villagers are confronted with untimely, heavyhanded interventions by the gendarmes or the Brigades de Recherche et d'Intervention (BRI), a special unit of the Algerian police. The war weaponry used by these Algerian security forces, their combat uniforms, including the use of balaclavas, and their brutal methods of action, are creating a climate of terror among a peaceful and shocked population.

The fact that Algerian justice sentences innocent people to long years in prison, and sometimes even to death, is also a decisive factor, prompting Amazighs to be cautious, silent and inwardlooking.

These stressful and oppressive living conditions have a negative impact on the economic, social and cultural life of the Amazigh people.

Belkacem Lounes is a Doctor of Economics, university teacher (Grenoble University), former expert member of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities and Minorities in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (20162021), former member of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (20182020), and author of numerous reports and articles on Amazigh and Indigenous rights.

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in

Notes and references

• Law 1206 of 12 January 2012 on associations, Official Journal of Algeria (JORADP) No. 2 of 15/01/2012, loi1206fr.pdf
• Human Rights Watch. “Algeria: Lift Undue Restrictions on Associations.” 25 September 2025. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/25/algerialiftunduerestrictionsonassociations
• Law 2514 of 03 August 2025 on the code of criminal procedure. JORADP No. 54 of 13/08/2025. www.joradp.dz
• Lardjane, “Algérie: les avocats contestent le projet de loi de code de procédure pénale.” TSA, 04 May 2025. https://www.tsaalgerie.com/algerielesavocatscontestentleprojetdeloidecodedeprocedurepenale
• “Algeria: Special Rapporteur dismayed by continued criminalisation of human rights defenders after her " United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 30 January 2025. https://www.ohchr.org/en/ pressreleases/2025/01/algeriaspecialrapporteurdismayedcontinuedcriminalisationhumanrights
• Assia B, “Refus de la soutenance de la thèse de doctorat de Samir Larabi: tout ce qu’il faut comprendre.” Algerie Nomads, 23 December 2025. https:// algerienomades.com/refussoutenancesamirlarabi/
• “Algérie: l’interdiction de sortie du territoire national : un outil de répression massif aux mains des autorités.” MENA Rights Group, October 2025. https:// menarights.org/sites/default/files/202511/MRG_Algeria%20Report_FR_ Final.pdf
• “Algérie: le mépris envers le peuple Amazigh se manifeste au sommet de l'Etat.” Amazigh World Congress, 25 December 2025. https://www.congresmondialorg/2025/12/26/alg%C3%A9rielem%C3%A9prisenverslepeupleamazighsemanifesteausommetdeletat/

Tags: Global governance