US EditionAlgeria Criminalizes French Colonial Rule in New Law
The law holds France legally accountable for colonial crimes including nuclear tests and torture, while removing demands for official apology and broad reparations, reflecting Algeria's official stance.
- On March 9, Algeria's Parliament approved an amended law that criminalises French colonial rule, assigns France legal responsibility for its colonial past, and retains compensation for victims of French nuclear tests in Algeria.
- France's support for Morocco's Western Sahara autonomy plan soured relations months ago, and recent tit-for-tat expulsions plus the arrest of an Algerian diplomat intensified the crisis.
- Covering 1830–1962, the law states crimes of French colonisation include nuclear testing, extrajudicial killings, torture, and the death toll estimates are 1.5 million by Algeria and 500,000 by French historians.
- France reacted by calling the measure 'clearly hostile' and 'manifestly hostile' to dialogue, while analysts say it risks security and migration cooperation; Parliament also approved nationality withdrawal for dual nationals, described as 'exceptional' by Algerian Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa.
- President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has framed the law as a lasting record of colonial crimes, emphasising that sacrifices of martyrs cannot be compensated with billions and marking a symbolic rupture in Algeria's memory of France.
22 Articles
22 Articles
Less virulent than the milling submitted to Parliament in December 2025, the adopted text no longer requires an "explicit recognition" of "colonial crimes", but calls for compensation for the victims of the French nuclear tests conducted in the 1960s.
Algeria approves amended law criminalising French rule
Algeria's parliament on Monday approved an amended law criminalising French colonial rule, removing earlier provisions that called for official apologies and broad reparations from France after Senate demanded the changes. The law, approved by the lower house in December, had declared France's colonisation of Algeria from 1830 to 1962 a crime and demanded an apology and reparations, with Paris calling it "hostile". But in January the Senate said…
The result of a compromise between the two chambers of Parliament, the adopted text removes the request for excuses from France but increases the penalties for Algerians who would "glorify" the colonial past, thus avoiding aggravating the crisis with Paris.
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