In May 2012, HRW complained that the Algerian government had been using "arrests and other tactics to keep people from demonstrating in the capital in the period leading up to the May 10, 2012 elections". Peaceful demonstrators in Algiers, including at least one candidate for election, were being detained, and some individuals had been prevented from entering the city. HRW noted that while the state of emergency had technically been lifted February 2011, security forces were still enforcing "repressive laws on public gatherings, including a ban on gatherings in Algiers". HRW described these laws as being "contrary to Algeria's binding human rights obligations under international law" and called on the country's government to "end its unjustified restrictions on freedom of assembly in Algiers".