Human Rights Abuses in Algeria

The Algerian government and the armed Islamist opposition it is fighting are each responsible for a severe deterioration in human rights conditions. Whereas only three years ago Algeria seemed to be evolving from an authoritarian one-party state toward a more pluralistic and democratic system with a thriving civil society, it is now mired in a virtual civil war in which the rights of no one are inviolate and the democratic process has been all but abandoned.