Algeria declares French colonisation crime, demands apology, reparations

Algeria’s parliament has unanimously approved legislation declaring France’s colonisation of the country a crime and calling for an official apology and reparations from Paris.

Lawmakers passed the bill on December 24, standing in the chamber and wearing scarves in the colours of Algeria’s national flag while chanting “long live Algeria”. The law states that France bears “legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused,” Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

The vote comes amid a deepening diplomatic crisis between Algeria and France. While analysts note that the law has no binding legal force internationally, they stress its strong political and symbolic importance.

Parliament Speaker Ibrahim Boughali said the decision sends “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable”.

The legislation lists what it describes as the “crimes of French colonisation”, including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, physical and psychological torture, and the systematic plundering of Algeria’s resources. It also affirms 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”.

France ruled Algeria from 1830 until 1962, a period culminating in the brutal war of independence between 1954 and 1962. Algeria estimates that 1.5 million people were killed during the conflict, while French historians put the total death toll at around 500,000, the majority of them Algerian.

French President Emmanuel Macron has previously described the colonisation of Algeria as a “crime against humanity” but has stopped short of issuing a formal apology.

Asked about the Algerian parliamentary vote, French foreign ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux declined to comment, saying France does not respond to “political debates taking place in foreign countries”.

Hosni Kitouni, a researcher in colonial history at the University of Exeter, said the law has no legal effect on France but represents a major shift in memory politics. “Its political and symbolic significance is important: it marks a rupture in the relationship with France in terms of memory,” he said.

By Vugar Khalilov