Amar Bentoumi

in Peuples/Popoli/Peoples/Pueblos, n. 8 (October 1986)

Defeated militarily despite a long and heroic resistance, robbed of their property, the Algerian people have been subjected for more than a century to a continuous attempt at depersonalisation and have been denied their right to exist and to respect for their national and cultural identity.
After a cruel war of liberation lasting more than 7 years, it regained its national sovereignty and independence by exercising its right to self-determination through a referendum.
In the wake of its independence, it has gradually regained its economic, social and cultural rights.
Since then, he has provided constant support to national liberation movements around the world.
Algiers, which became, in the words of Amilcar Cabral, “the Mecca of peoples in struggle”, welcomed those who, with Lelio Basso, wanted to adopt a “Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples”, by which they intended to proclaim “that all peoples of the world have an equal right to freedom, the right to be free from foreign interference and to choose their own government, the right, if they are enslaved, to struggle for their liberation, the right to have the assistance of other peoples in their struggle”.
With his innate sense of history and insight, Lelio Basso chose the 4th of July 1976 for this proclamation to mark the 200th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, which was also the first Declaration of Human Rights.
The meeting of Lelio Basso, this passionate defender of the cause of the rights of peoples, with the Algerian people, is not fortuitous. It is that of a man of exceptional intelligence and extraordinary generosity of heart who was a pioneer in the fight for the emergence of a right of peoples with a people who fought doggedly to conquer their rights on the basis of the principle of the right of peoples to self-determination. For both, “peoples have rights” and they are subjects of the law of nations.
A decade after the proclamation of what became known as the ‘Declaration’ or ‘Charter of Algiers’, Algeria can draw up a positive balance sheet of its action, at the international level, in favour of the rights of peoples.
To be convinced of this, it is enough to recall its action in favour of the peoples who have submitted their cases to the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal: Western Sahara, Argentina, Eritrea, Philippines, El Salvador, Afghanistan, etc…
Should we mention the constant and unflappable support that Algerian governments have always given and still give to the Saharawi, Palestinian and Namibian peoples in their struggle for self-determination and independence?
Algeria has never ceased to support the just cause of the people of South Africa against the odious apartheid regime, that of Nicaragua against the intervention of the United States in its internal affairs and, in general, that of the peoples of South America and elsewhere for the free exercise of their right to choose freely, without foreign interference, their political, economic and social regime.
Without explicitly referring to Article 30 of the Algiers Declaration, Algeria considers that it is its duty, and should be the duty of other members of the international community, to assist any people whose fundamental rights are seriously violated.
The National Charter, adopted by referendum by the Algerian people on 17 January 1986, expressly states:
– on the one hand, that “the characteristics of Algeria’s foreign policy were defined during the war of liberation waged by the Algerian people to regain their independence”…
– on the other hand, that “Algeria’s attachment to the ideals of freedom, peace, justice and equality defines its international approach”, as well as its determination to “pursue the struggle to build a genuine collective security system that respects the right of peoples to self-determination and ensures them the free choice of the political and economic regime that suits them”.
Moreover, Algeria was among the states that recently adopted the African Convention on the Rights of Peoples within the framework of the OAU.
It is undoubtedly one of the countries that have pursued a policy at the international level over the last decade, the foundations of which are to be found in the Algiers Declaration.

Bentoumi, Amar
in: Peuples/Popoli/Peoples/Pueblos, n. 8 (October 1986)