36 femicides were reported. At least 18,302 migrants were summarily expelled from Algeria between January and December. BACKGROUND In February, Algeria recalled its ambassador in France after Algerian activist Amira Bouraoui fled to France. Authorities then prosecuted six individuals, including Amira Bouraoui and her mother, on fabricated charges, including “migrant smuggling” and forming an “association of wrongdoers”. In March, the UPR concluded its review of Algeria. The country accepted recommendations to amend its repressive law on public meetings and demonstrations, and the provision that excuses rapists who marry their victims. It rejected the recommendation to amend overly broad provisions in the Penal Code that criminalize those who peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.1 In September, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association visited Algeria to assess the situation in the country, as did the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in December. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Authorities investigated, prosecuted and convicted journalists, at least one activist and a geopolitics researcher in relation to critical views they had expressed, mainly online. In April, authorities shut down at least two online newspaper and radio outlets.2 On 2 April, an Algiers court ordered the dissolution of media company Interface Media and its two news outlets Radio M and Maghreb Emergent, headed by journalist Ihsane El Kadi, and the payment of a DZD 10 million fine (around USD 73,862) to the Audiovisual Regulatory Authority. In June, an appeals court sentenced Ihsane El Kadi to seven years in prison, with two years suspended, for his journalistic work, including in relation to his reports for the French newspaper La Croix. The State of the World’s Human Rights On 4 July, a court in Algiers sentenced Amazigh activist Slimane Bouhafs to three years’ imprisonment and a fine on a bogus charge of “harming the integrity of the national territory” through his online publications.3 On 13 August, media reported that the Barbie movie was banned from Algerian cinemas for “harming morals”. In August, authorities promulgated Law 23-14 on information, which imposes undue licensing and ownership regulations, such as requiring media organizations to be exclusively owned by Algerian nationals. It includes vague and broad provisions that ban journalists from, among other things, publishing “false information” or information that might “advocate colonialism, undermine national memory and the symbols of the war of national liberation”, and provides for a heavy fine and confiscation of property for any media receiving foreign funds not designated for subscriptions or advertising. On 26 October, an appeals court in the eastern city of Constantine sentenced journalist Mustapha Bendjama to 20 months’ imprisonment, with 12 months’ suspended, for receiving foreign funds that “might harm state security” and “publishing classified information or documents on an electronic network” in relation to his journalistic work. The court also gave researcher Raouf Farrah the same sentence on the same charges for collecting money for people in detention and for his work as a researcher. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION Authorities escalated their crackdown on independent groups, ordering the closure of two human rights groups and suspending at least one political party. On 23 January, in Bejaia in eastern Algeria, authorities sealed the LADDH’s Centre for Documenting Human Rights, citing a 2022 judgment dissolving the LADDH. LADDH leaders had only that month learned of the June 2022 dissolution order that followed a complaint filed by the interior ministry. On 30 January, in Tizi Ouzou in eastern Algeria, authorities sealed and closed down 75