Algeria - Alternative report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC)

This report was prepared in advance of the Committee on the Rights of the Child's 78th Pre-Session Working Group, where it will be examining Algeria's implementation of its obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC).

Questions arising directly from the Committee's previous concluding observations on Algeria are as follows, recommendations are provided for in the report.

• Does national legislation allow any exceptions to the minimum age of 19 for call up into military service, for example, in states of emergency or at the conscript’s own request?

• Are Popular Defence recruits called into service in the calendar year in which they reach 18 years of age, or after their 18th birthday?

• What are the obligations of 16- and 17-year-olds in relation to the Popular Defence Forces.

• Can volunteer career officer recruits enter training and/or service before the date of their 18th birthday?

• Can students at National Cadet Schools leave without penalty at any time?

• Are National Cadet School students obliged to enlist into the armed forces after graduation?

• Are National Cadet School students subject to military law and discipline?

• What is the minimum age limit for membership of the GLD?

• Is the recruitment of persons under the age of 18 by non-state armed groups and/or national armed forces, and their use in hostilities, criminalised under national legislation?

• What measures is the state party taking to prevent recruitment of children by armed groups?

• What role is played by non-governmental organisations, the media, the private sector and the community, in particular children, in the design and implementation of programmes to prevent the recruitment of children by armed groups?

• What public and private programmes exist to enable children to leave armed groups, paying special attention to their safety and protection from reprisals, and physical and psychosocial recovery? In what way do these programmes address the specific needs of girls?

• What measures are in place to identify children, including girls, amongst the asylum-seeking and migrant population who may have been victims of child recruitment or other violations of OPAC, and to provide them with age- and gender-appropriate assistance programmes for their physical and psychosocial recovery.