Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie Madame Chair, Ladies and Gentlemen, Honorable representatives of minority peoples and NGOs, Following Mr. Mehenni’s presentation on the statelessness of the Kabyle people targeted by Algerian repression, I would like to reflect on these people. We can say that, overall, “all people without a state are a stateless people”. The denial of existence is the worst pain inflicted upon a people. Providing identity papers to its members in the name of a nationality that is not theirs may appear like an opportunity from an external perspective, when it is actually an additional punishment. Having imposed on oneself a nationality that one rejects is always colonialism. Thus, the Kabyle people have been subjected to statelessness since 1857, when they were forcibly included in French Algeria, which, in 1962, became the state that has denigrated as an internal enemy that must be erased from consciousness. After an unsuccessful war in 1965, Kabylie leads a peaceful political fight that is opposed to military violence, such as the Black Spring of 2001, during which no less than 130 people were killed. The only way to put an end to this unbearable situation is to organize a referendum on selfdetermination. In order to expose the mountains of injustice (repression, denials and discrimination of all sorts) to which Algeria has subjected Kabylie, a Memorandum was addressed to the UN SecretaryGeneral on 28 September 2017. Kabylie is waiting for the official response of the United Nations. In addition, we ask that a UN and EU mission are sent to verify the unbearable status of this stateless people. Thank you. Statement of the representative of the Amis de la Kabylie at the 11th Session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues Zidane LAFDAL Les Amis de la Kabylie Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie Geneva, 30 November 2018