Amnesty as a turning point for transitional justice in the light of democratic transformations - Algeria as case -

• Author: Belouadah Tayeb
• Position: Assistant instructor and staff member in the Faculty of Law at M'sila University, Algeria.
• Pages: 45-53

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AMNESTY AS A TURNING POINT FOR TRANSITIONAL

JUSTICE IN THE LIGHT OF DEMOCRATIC

TRANSFORMATIONS - ALGERIA AS CASE -

Belouadah Tayeb

Abstract

Within the recent democratic transitions, countries suffer from

inflation in the newly penal legislation, but this inflation did not reduce

crime, and it did not take into account the purposes of applying reform laws.

So the desired goal of reform is the return of the offender to the normal

behavior. For this purpose, penal legislations – as in Algeria – adopted

Amnesty as one of the methods of reform.

Key words: amnesty, concord, reconciliation, transitional period,

justice, democratic transformations, Algeria experience.

Introduction

The article sheds light on the most effective means of achieving the

goal sought by the law and society which is reforming the offender and

reducing the crime wave. The goal then is to make reform an effective means

of punishment by giving the offender the opportunity to return to normal

social behavior. Therefore; amnesty seems to be one of the methods of reform

for combating crime and rehabilitating the offender. In this context, can we

consider amnesty as a necessary attitude to reduce the rate of crimes? In this

paper, focusing on the ca se of Algeria a s a model, we shall discuss amnesty

laws according to the Algerian reconciliation in the light of the democratic

transformation of society.

1 - Amnesty as a Recent Criminal Penalty

To study of amnesty as a system of reform and as a legal system

designed to combat crime and to rehabilitate the offender, we need first to

give an idea about pardon and its types, and then we should address its

procedures in the following manner: We need to discuss the definition of

amnesty from different angles, and then display its types.

Amnesty is a pardon or a measure by which the convicted shall be

exempt from the performance of penality that he had to spend in the penal

institution. Amnesty was an old measure that existed throughout history that

had often provided the interaction between human beings as a reflection of a

sense of humanitarian feeling, and as an alternative to retaliation and

 Assistant instructor and staff member in the Faculty of Law at M'sila Universit y, Algeria.

tbelouadah@yahoo.fr