Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

Brian White, Kutztown University
Human Rights Challenges in Algeria: A Historical Perspective
France and Algeria have had a close, complex and tense relationship since the 1830 invasion of
Algeria. Throughout the history of Algerian colonization the French used violence, discrimination, and
torture to gain the upper hand against the Arab population. This history of hostility along with the
Algerian people‘s desire for independence began the Algerian War of 1954-62. During the war,
specifically during the Battle of Algiers in 1957, the French increased their use of torture and
discrimination, while those on the Algerian side made use of bombings on French settlers known as
Pieds-Noirs. It was the way in which both sides handled the war, mainly by violating the fundamental
human rights of the French and Algerian citizens that led to the creation of the Fifth Republic and the
current anti-immigration sentiment among some of the French public. The purpose of this paper is to
highlight the use of torture by the French army during the Algerian War, specifically during the Battle of
Algiers, and to show how those actions and the actions taken by the Front de Libération Nationale known
as the FLN have had a continuous and lasting impact on the French people.
To discuss the background of French and Algerian relations, Algeria was conquered fully by
1848. Instead of being treated as another colony Algeria was incorporated as an integral part of France.
By the 1860‘s Algeria was fully incorporated, split into departments, and given representation in the
National Assembly. 1 This series of events made Algeria effectively equal to the rest of France. In reality
that could not have been any further from the truth. The Pieds-Noirs were treated vastly superior to the
native Arab population. The French government went on to violate the rights of the Arab population by
refusing to educate them, exploiting their farm land and forests and allowing the population to fall into
1 David Prochaska, Making Algeria French; Colonialism in Bone, 1870-1920. (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1990), 2.
172