Algeria reaffirms its ongoing commitment to child protection. The publication of two new executive decrees, issued in the Official Journal on November 27, 2025, reflects the public authorities’ desire to strengthen the national legal framework, modernize prevention mechanisms, and ensure optimal support for children at risk as well as for young people in difficulty.
The Ministry of National Solidarity published this Monday the details and new provisions introduced in these two texts. Executive Decree No. 25-309 of November 16, 2025 modifies and completes the 2016 decree governing the organization and functioning of the National Authority for the Protection and Promotion of Childhood. This text provides for the creation of a National Cyber Vigilance Unit, whose main objective is to enhance the protection of children in the digital space.
This unit is specifically intended to monitor and analyze all digital content that may harm children’s rights. Its missions are organized around four fundamental axes. First, it is responsible for detecting and controlling content, especially that targeting children, to ensure compliance with protection standards. Second, the unit receives reports of violations of children’s rights observed on the internet, in the media, or on social networks, notably through a dedicated digital platform made available to the public. Third, it guarantees the immediate processing of these reports and conducts risk analysis. Finally, the unit is responsible for forwarding urgent cases to the National Delegate for Child Protection, enabling the competent authorities to quickly undertake necessary actions.
To ensure maximum efficiency, this Cyber Vigilance Unit will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Its composition is multidisciplinary and highly specialized. It brings together representatives from various ministerial sectors, cybersecurity specialists, judicial police officers, as well as officials specially trained in child protection issues. This composition ensures comprehensive expertise to face contemporary digital threats.
Furthermore, the decree provides for the establishment of a dedicated digital platform to facilitate reporting of violations against children’s rights.
The second text, Executive Decree No. 25-308 of November 16, 2025, sets the conditions for the creation, organization, and functioning of centers specialized in child protection. Developed based on a joint report by the Minister of Justice and the Minister of National Solidarity, it is part of the implementation of Law No. 15-12 related to child protection.
These centers, now qualified as public administrative establishments, have legal personality and financial autonomy. They bring together centers for the protection of children at risk, centers for the care of children in conflict with the law, and multiservice centers dedicated to prevention for young people.
The text introduces several essential provisions, including the reception of children with disabilities in specially adapted units, the obligation to respect the best interests of the child in any modification of a center’s purpose, and the creation of each center by executive decree specifying its specialty, location, and the specific needs of the territory where it is established.
The management of these structures relies on a board of directors, a director, and a psycho-educational council, whose powers and operating procedures are clearly defined.
Each specialized center will also have an educational working committee chaired by the territorially competent juvenile judge. This committee will be responsible for monitoring educational programs, the progress of the children cared for, and may recommend revising the measures applied.
A psycho-educational council, composed of psychologists, educators, and specialists, will be tasked with examining issues related to the center’s missions and formulating opinions and recommendations.
These two decrees thus complement and modernize the Algerian legal framework related to child protection.