UN Authority Figures

UN Development Programme Executive Board: Algeria

Mohamed Benchicou, director of the Algiers-based French-language daily Le Matin. "Benchicou served the full two years in prison to which an Algiers court sentenced him on a currency offense. Before his conviction in June 2004, Benchicou and his newspaper had virulently criticized Bouteflika and other ministers in his government." Human Rights News, June 14, 2006

Mission of the UN Development Programme: "UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners. World leaders have pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including the overarching goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015. UNDP's network links and coordinates global and national efforts to reach these Goals. Our focus is helping countries build and share solutions to the challenges of: Democratic Governance...UNDP helps developing countries attract and use aid effectively. In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women." (U.N. Development Programme web-site, "About UNDP")

Term of office: 2007-2008

Algeria's Record on Democratic Governance:
"The government continued to fail to account for thousands of persons who disappeared in detention during the 1990s. Other significant human rights problems included reports of abuse and torture; official impunity; prolonged pretrial detention; limited judicial independence; denial of fair, public trials; restrictions on civil liberties, including freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association; security-based restrictions on movement; limitations on religious freedom, including increased regulation of non-Muslim worship; corruption and lack of government transparency; discrimination against women; and restrictions on workers' rights." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2006, Algeria)