prosecutor revealed the scale of the abuse. Five persons, including the former director of the orphanage, were arrested. ALGERIA other ill-treatment, counter-terrorism, enforced disappearance and freedoms of association and peaceful assembly. The authorities also continued to prevent international organizations, including Amnesty International, from conducting human rights fact-finding visits. People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria Head of state: Abdelaziz Bouteflika Head of government: Abdelmalek Sellal FREEDOMS OF ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY The authorities continued to restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly and religion, and prosecuted peaceful critics, including human rights defenders, in unfair trials. Refugees and migrants were arbitrarily expelled. Impunity for past serious abuses continued to prevail. Courts handed down death sentences; no executions were carried out. BACKGROUND In January, the government dissolved the Department for Information and Security (DRS), the main security agency previously associated with torture and other ill-treatment of detainees. It was replaced with a Security Services Directorate that reports directly to the President. Also in January, changes to the Code of Criminal Procedure came into effect, including new witness protection measures, limits to the right to appeal in minor offence cases and amendments allowing suspects to contact lawyers immediately when they are taken into police custody. The changes did not give suspects the right to have their lawyer present during interrogation. Constitutional amendments adopted in February included the creation of a National Human Rights Council to replace the National Consultative Commission for Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Other amendments included making Tamazight a national language, thus enhancing the cultural rights of the Amazigh population.1 The authorities continued to block access to Algeria by UN human rights mechanisms, including those with mandates on torture and Amnesty International Report 2016/17 The authorities continued to leave many civil society associations, including Amnesty International Algeria, in legal limbo by failing to acknowledge their registration applications. Such applications were required under Law 12-06 on associations, which imposed wideranging arbitrary restrictions on associations and exposed members of unrecognized associations to up to six months’ imprisonment and fines. The authorities tightly restricted freedom of assembly, maintaining a ban on all demonstrations in the capital, Algiers, under a decree from 2001, and arresting and prosecuting peaceful protesters. In January a court in Tamanrasset imposed fines and one-year prison sentences on seven peaceful protesters convicted of “unarmed gathering” and “offending public institutions” for protesting in December 2015 about a local land dispute. Six of the seven protesters were released in July under a presidential pardon. The seventh, activist Dahmane Kerami, remained in prison serving a one-year sentence in a separate case. He was convicted of participating in “unarmed gatherings” and “obstructing traffic” during peaceful protests in Tamanrasset in 2015 against shale gas fracking and in support of workers laid off by a local gold mining company. He was released on 31 December after serving his sentence.2 In March, a court sentenced activist Abdelali Ghellam to one year in prison and a fine after convicting him of inciting others to participate in an “unarmed gathering” and “obstruct traffic”. The charges related to comments about the protest in Tamanrasset that he published on Facebook. He was released in April. 63