Question 8760 — foreign policy

Summary

Mrs Martine Wonner alerts the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs about the situation of Catholics and Protestants in Algeria. The situation of Catholics and Protestants in Algeria is worsening day by day. A presidential decree of 2006 thus sets the conditions and rules for the exercise of religions other than Muslim with a national exercise commission. Since November 2017, arrests of Christians have increased multiplied and many churches were closed. From now on, each must register with ten particularly draconian conditions. Despite numerous requests to open churches, no authorization was granted in 2017 and 2018. All this naturally goes against the universal declaration of human rights and the Algerian constitution. Furthermore, the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA), the only federation of churches Protestant churches recognized by the Algerian authorities, reports that most of these churches have been visited since November 2017 by a health inspection committee, made up of representatives of local authorities, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the gendarmerie, and the intelligence services. Walking around with a Bible on you is punishable by prison. This recurring situation alerts Western countries, like Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had raised the issue with the Minister of Religious Affairs, expressing her dissatisfaction, in 2008. She alerted him to act for the end of the campaign to close churches, for the guarantee of freedom of worship and the release of Christians condemned for reasons linked to their belief.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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