E/CN.4/2003/66/Add.1 page 8 legislative elections of May and October 2002, intended to see to it that the rule of law became established in a democratic process which would strengthen the multiparty system. The Minister of Justice also stressed that human rights were an asset and heritage that Algeria should embrace. 28. Under the heading “Broad areas of reform”, the Government programme approved by the National People’s Assembly on 27 July 2002 calls for a legislative programme based on a clearer delineation and better protection of fundamental rights and liberties, and on the amendment of laws and regulations to bring them into accord with international standards and treaty undertakings. The head of Government has said that he is determined to put through reforms so as to institute and entrench democracy and the rule of law and develop human rights beyond the reach of extremism and violence. 29. By letter dated 1 April 2002, President Bouteflika asked the National Advisory Committee on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights to draw up a real plan of action on human rights, drawing both on agreements that Algeria had ratified and on the recommendations of United Nations human rights bodies. The lustre that the President added to a colloquium on St. Augustine is of a piece with his concern to remind people, first, of the need for tolerance, and second, of Algeria’s richness and diversity. 5. The religious situation in Algeria 30. Ninety-nine per cent of the Algerian population are Sunni Muslim adherents of the Maliki school of law. The Maliki school, which predominates in the Maghreb, is a fairly hard-line one drawing on the tradition inherited from Medina at the time of the Prophet; it recommends taking account of the general interest and sets great store by tradition. 31. There is in the Mzab region of Algeria an Ibadite community 150,000 to 200,000 strong. The Ibadites, descendants of the Kharidjites and doctrinally uncompromising Islamic purists, founded Ghardaïa and four other towns which are still home to their community. 32. In the absence of official statistics on religious minorities one has to rely on figures supplied by the communities concerned. These suggest that Algeria has 10,000 Catholics and between 5,000 and 20,000 Protestants. One Adventist church is said to have a congregation of about 20. 33. Before independence there was a Jewish community some 150,000 strong, but most have left the country. According to the Ministry of the Interior’s Director of Public Liberties, there may be around 1,000 Jews living in Algiers, Blida and Constantine, but all those interviewed felt that there was no longer a real Jewish community and no working synagogue. 34. elite. Atheism appears to be marginal, although it is found among a certain fringe of the lay