{"id":55683,"date":"2025-11-30T14:18:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T14:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/?p=55683"},"modified":"2025-12-02T07:22:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T07:22:02","slug":"time-to-criminalize-colonialism-on-international-law-algeria-takes-the-lead-hosting-the-first-ever-international-conference-on-colonial-crimes-in-africa-under-president-tebbounes-patronag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/time-to-criminalize-colonialism-on-international-law-algeria-takes-the-lead-hosting-the-first-ever-international-conference-on-colonial-crimes-in-africa-under-president-tebbounes-patronag\/","title":{"rendered":"TIME TO CRIMINALIZE COLONIALISM ON INTERNATIONAL LAW : Algeria Takes the Lead ! Hosting the first-ever International Conference on Colonial Crimes in Africa under President Tebboune\u2019s patronage!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Tazeen Akhtar | Islamabad<\/strong><\/p>\n

Algeria Takes the Lead, <\/strong><\/em>Hosting the first-ever International Conference on Colonial Crimes in Africa under President Tebboune\u2019s patronage! Ministers, historians & legal experts from across Africa and the Caribbean gathered to forge a united front demanding:<\/p>\n

@Official recognition of colonial-era atrocities
\n@Legal condemnation of colonialism
\n@Return of looted cultural treasures<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice isn\u2019t hollow speeches\u2014it\u2019s truth & restitution,\u201d said Algerian FM Ahmed Attaf.
\nAU Commissioner Bankole Adeoye called for stronger Pan-African unity + diaspora inclusion to criminalize colonialism globally\u2014placing it alongside slavery & apartheid.<\/p>\n

The first of its kind\u00a0 International Conference on Criminalization of Colonialism in Africa: Towards Correcting Historical Injustices through Criminalization of Colonization, organized by Algeria, under the supreme patronage of the President of the Republic Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune\u00a0 kickstarted on November 30 to be continued on December 01, 2025, at the at the Abdellatif Rahal International Conference Centre (CIC), Algiers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

African leaders gathered at the International Conference on colonial crimes in Africa, which opened on Sunday in Algiers, forcefully renewed their demand for official and explicit recognition of the crimes committed against their peoples throughout centuries of colonial rule.<\/p>\n

Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the National Community Abroad and African Affairs, Mr. Ahmed Ataf,<\/strong> during the official opening asserted that Africa has every right to demand formal and explicit recognition of the crimes committed against its people during the colonial era.<\/p>\n

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In his address at the opening of the International Conference on Colonial Crimes in Africa, hosted in Algeria, Mr. Ataf emphasized that such recognition is \u201cthe least that can be expected as a necessary first step towards addressing the legacies of this era, for which African nations and peoples continue to pay a heavy price in terms of exclusion, marginalization, and underdevelopment.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ataf argued that Africa is justified in demanding the legal criminalization of colonialism at the international level, without ambiguity. He quoted the Algerian intellectual Frantz Fanon, stating that colonialism is not a thinking machine or a reasoning body, but rather violence in its purest form.\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cJust as the international community has previously criminalized slavery and similar practices, as well as apartheid, it is now time to criminalize colonialism itself, rather than merely focusing on criminalizing some of its practices and consequences,\u201d Ataf added.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Foreign Minister also affirmed Africa\u2019s right to just compensation and the return of looted property. He stated that justice cannot be achieved through empty rhetoric, false promises, and romantic goodwill, and that compensation is not a charity or favor, but a legitimate right guaranteed by all international laws and norms.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ataf addressed the imperative of definitively eliminating colonialism, stating, \u201cWe must not overlook the necessity of completely eradicating colonialism itself. To our brothers in the last colony in Africa, Western Sahara<\/strong>, we extend our sincere solidarity and support as they uphold their legitimate right to self-determination, as affirmed by international legitimacy and the United Nations\u2019 doctrine on decolonization.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He also expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza,<\/strong> the West Bank, and occupied Jerusalem, reaffirming Africa\u2019s commitment to the words of the late Nelson Mandela, that Africa\u2019s freedom remains incomplete without the freedom of Palestine.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ahmed Attaf, said that \u201cAfrica has every right to demand official and explicit acknowledgment of the crimes committed against its peoples during the colonial era.\u201d He described such acknowledgment as \u201cthe bare minimum\u201d and an essential first step toward confronting the enduring legacy of colonialism, for which African countries and peoples continue to pay a heavy price through exclusion, marginalization, and underdevelopment.<\/p>\n

FM Attaf further asserted that Africa is fully entitled to demand that colonialism be unequivocally criminalized under international law, quoting the Algerian revolutionary thinker Frantz Fanon: \u201cColonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with reason; it is violence in its natural state.\u201d Echoing this call, participants stressed that the conference\u2019s primary objectives were to deepen collective reflection and, above all, to consolidate unified African action aimed at criminalizing colonialism, slavery, racial segregation, and apartheid, and classifying them as crimes against humanity in line with the relevant recommendations of the African Union (AU).<\/p>\n

Attaf on France – Western Sahara <\/strong><\/p>\n

Attaf said it was no mistake that the conference was held in Algeria, a country that suffered some of the most brutal forms of French colonial rule and fought a bloody war between 1954 and 1962 to win its independence.<\/p>\n

Its impact was far-reaching: nearly a million European settlers held greater political, economic and social privileges, even though Algeria was legally part of\u00a0France\u00a0and its men were conscripted during the second world war.<\/p>\n

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Hundreds of thousands of people died in the country\u2019s revolution, during which French forces tortured detainees, disappeared suspects and devastated villages as part of a counterinsurgency strategy to maintain their grip on power.<\/div>\n
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\u201cOur continent retains the example of Algeria\u2019s bitter ordeal as a rare model, almost without equivalent in history, in its nature, its logic and its practices,\u201d Attaf said.<\/div>\n
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Algeria\u2019s experience has long informed its position on the disputed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony claimed by neighbouring Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Pakistan in the World \u2013 September 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n