National reconciliation in Algeria from a bottom-up approach: analysing victims' narratives

National Reconciliation in Algeria is a controversial subject that provokes considerable debates among human rights organisations as well as opposition parties. Since the third term of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, many manifestations of civil war victims have been organised across the country. While it is deemed for a long time that the enforced disappearance file is the only stake for the reconciliation process, these recent protests illustrate the extent to which the process fails to address the past legacies. Alternative pasts have resurfaced to challenge the official discourse that has been implanted for twenty years. Using a bottom-up approach, this article inquiries and assesses national reconciliation in Algeria by distinguishing between different victims' groups. It demonstrates how the process has been presented, interpreted, and evaluated by different victims' groups based on the in-depth research.