The country's action is also part of a broader movement to hold former colonial powers accountable for their legacy in the Global South. But former colonial powers in Europe don’t want to talk about it. Reparations once againAlgeria’s parliament on Christmas Eve passed unanimously a law declaring France’s colonisation of the country a crime and demanding reparations and an official apology. The legislation catalogues some of the crimes of French colonisation in Algeria, including mass killings, the extermination of tribes through suffocation, the burning of villages and “systematic torture and institutionalised sexual violence”. But Algeria’s action is also part of a broader movement to hold former colonial powers accountable for their legacy in the Global South.

Source: The Irish Times December 25, 2025 11:53 UTC