Algeria declares France’s colonial rule a crime in new law

Algeria’s new law declares French colonial rule a crime, seeking accountability and reparations for the colonial past.Published On 24 Dec 2025Algeria’s parliament has unanimously passed legislation declaring France’s colonisation of the country a crime.On Wednesday, lawmakers stood in the chamber draped in scarves bearing the national colours, chanting “Long live Algeria” as they approved the bill.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Algeria bill seeks to criminalise French colonial rule: What to knowlist 2 of 3French Empire: Civilising Missionlist 3 of 3Algeria bill seeks to criminalise era of French colonial ruleend of listParliament also formally demanded an apology and reparations from Paris in a move that seeks to redress attempts to sweep the issue aside.The law assigns France “legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused”, placing historical accountability at the centre of the state’s legal framework.While analysts say the law carries no enforceable international weight, its political impact is significant, signalling a rupture in how Algeria engages France over colonial memory.Parliament Speaker Ibrahim Boughali said the legislation sent “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable”, according to the APS state news agency.The text catalogues crimes of French colonial rule, including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, “physical and psychological torture” and the “systematic plundering of resources”.It also asserts that “full and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people”.‘Crime against humanity’France brutally ruled Algeria from 1830 to 1962 through a system marked by torture, enforced disappearances, massacres, economic exploitation, mass killings and large-scale deportations and marginalisation of the country’s indigenous Muslim population.