Rachad is an Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

n political movement. Its stated objectivehttp://en.rachad.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=40 is to "break with political practices in place since independence

History of Algeria since 1962

-History of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, 1962–present:In preparation for independence, the CNRA had met in Tripoli in May 1962 to work out a plan for the FLN's transition from a liberation movement to a political party...

" and "establish a state in which the rule of law

Rule of law

The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...

, democratic principles

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 and good governance

Good governance

Good governance is an indeterminate term used in development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights. Governance describes "the process of decision-making and the process by which...

 prevail" through non-violent means. It calls upon the Algerian people to overthrow the government by peaceful mass protests, arguing that the government is controlled by a military junta largely responsible for the horrors of the Algerian Civil War

Algerian Civil War

The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives, in a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.More than 70 journalists were...

 and for the country's economic and social malaise.

Rachad was founded in 2007 by a number of Algerian opponents of the current government, includinghttp://en.rachad.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=9&id=23&Itemid=39 Abbas Aroua

Abbas Aroua

Dr. Abbas Aroua is an Algerian medical physicist and activist.He obtained his PhD from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 1991. He is currently privat docent at the Lausanne Faculty of Medicine in Switzerland, and head of Aroua Health & Education....

, Mourad Dhina

Mourad Dhina

Dr. Mourad Dhina is an Algerian physicist and activist living in Switzerland. Until 2004, he was a leading figure in the Islamic Salvation Front abroad. In 2007, he co-founded Rachad....

, Rachid Mesli

Rachid Mesli

Rachid Mesli is an Algerian human rights lawyer and activist, now living in exile in Geneva. He is a founding member of Justitia Universalis and Rachad....

, Mohamed Samraoui

Mohamed Samraoui

Mohamed Samraoui is a former member of the Algerian secret services who wrote a book claiming that the DRS had been involved in torture and extralegal killings, and had manipulated the Armed Islamic Groups on a large scale to commit further massacres.He joined the Algerian army in July 1974...

, and Mohamed Larbi Zitout

Mohamed Larbi Zitout

Mohamed Larbi Zitout is a well-known Algerian activist and former diplomat.After graduating from the Ecole Nationale d'Administration in Algiers and obtaining a master's degree in International Relations, he pursued a career in diplomacy. By 1995, he had become Algeria's Ambassador to Libya...

 (all living in exile), and others living in Algeria whose identity has not been made public.http://rachad.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=288&Itemid=125 In September 2008, its founding member Abbas Aroua

Abbas Aroua

Dr. Abbas Aroua is an Algerian medical physicist and activist.He obtained his PhD from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 1991. He is currently privat docent at the Lausanne Faculty of Medicine in Switzerland, and head of Aroua Health & Education....

, through the Cordoba Foundation, organised a conference in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, "Perspectives on political change in Algeria", which brought together Algerians from a variety of political perspectives who oppose the current system, including Rachad, to agree on a set of shared principleshttp://www.rachad.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=218:colloque-de-geneve-perspectives-de-changement-politique-en-algerie&catid=68:editoriauxfr&Itemid=99. Along with other groups across the political spectrum, it called for a boycott of the 2009 presidential elections

Algerian presidential election, 2009

A presidential election was held in Algeria on 9 April 2009. It was described in a US Embassy in Algiers cable as "carefully choreographed and heavily controlled", with the official turnout figure "exaggerated".- Removal of term limit :...

http://www.rachad.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=294:une-parodie-delections-a-condamner-a-boycotter-et-a-en-refuser-les-resultats&catid=65:communiquesfr&Itemid=87; afterwards, it condemned the reported results as fraudulent (as later confirmed by Wikileaks in 2011Wikileaks: 09ALGIERS370), and claimed that the true participation rate was just 16%.http://www.rachad.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=315:la-parodie-delections-du-9-avril-2009-et-les-vrais-chiffres&catid=65:communiquesfr&Itemid=87. The organisation has made extensive use of TV and the Internet to spread its ideas, with spokespersons appearing on major channels including Aljazeerahttp://tv.rachad.org/. In January 2011, as unprecedented large-scale protests began in Algeria, it called upon its supporters to join demonstrations against the system.

External links

• Rachad homepage (also in in Arabic, French)
• Rachad TV, YouRachad, and TvRachad
• A warning for Turkey (Guardian article mentioning Rachad)
• Algérie: Création à Londres d'un mouvement d'opposition (Liberation)
• New Algerian movement calls for "radical nonviolent reform" (Al Hayat)