[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Committee [official website] expressed concern Friday over continuing human rights violations in Algeria. In its 2007 report [PDF text, in French; press release] on the North African country, the Committee flagged massacres, torture, rape and disappearances, as well as religious and political oppression. It concluded that the violence was a product of both armed groups and government security forces, but it urged Algerian leaders to take steps to stop the abuses, recommending in particular that Algerian judges, lawyers and citizens be educated in basic human rights.

Internal conflict erupted in Algeria in 1992 [Amnesty International backgrounder] when the Algerian military intervened in national elections, preventing the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) [backgrounder] from gaining power. Since the early 1990s, over 200,000 Algerians people are believed to have been killed as a result of violence by both government and non-government armed groups. Reuters has more.