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A discriminatory legal regime
Algeria under colonial occupation
On the occasion of the National Day of Moudjahid, commemorating the double anniversary of the Northern-Constantinian offensive and the Soummam Congress (August 20, 1955-1956), the National Institute for Studies of Global Strategy (INESG) organized, Wednesday in Algiers, a conference on the theme of “citizenship under the French occupation of Algeria and the Revolution of Liberation”. On this occasion, the director general of the institute, Abdelaziz Medjahed, said that this conference was part of a series of conferences organized by the INESG, noting “the inequality adopted, from the start of the occupation, by the colonial administration with regard to the Algerian people, through a discriminatory legal regime”. The colonial legal texts have made Algerians non-citizens subject to the Indigentnat code and private of their civil and political rights, he said.
In this regard, Abdelaziz Medjahed called for researchers to “precisely define the concept of citizenship during the colonial period, through the analysis of the various legal texts published at the time” which, he said, highlight “the legal and social inequalities imposed on the Algerian people and the refusal, by the Algerians, of this colonial policy”. For his part, Professor Habib Brikallah of the University of Tindouf, presented a communication entitled “The contours and the foundations of the construction of citizenship in the thought of the Emir Abdelkader during the popular resistance”, where he evoked the components and the foundations of the modern Algerian State based on justice and equality in rights and duties. Professor Khemissa Meddour of the University of Guelma treated, “the question of citizenship in French legislation”, while Professor Mouloud Grine of the University of Médéa presented a communication on “the concept of citizenship and its foundations from the point of view of the Algerian elites and their positions vis-à-vis French naturalization projects at the end of the XXI century”.
As a reminder, on August 20, celebrated as the Moudjahid Day, devotes two decisive moments-the North-Constantine offensive in 1955, under the leadership of Zighoud Youcef, and the Soummam Congress in 1956-which helped to strengthen the commitment of the Algerian people in the armed struggle for independence and create the conditions of the final victory. The North-Constantinian offensive preceded the registration, the following month, in September 1955, in the UN General Assembly of the Algerian cause, with the opportunity of its internationalization. The same day, August 20, a year later, 1956, the Soummam congress made it possible to structure the revolution militarily and politically. THERE