HRW issues scathing report on the repression of civil society in Tunisia

A new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Tunisian government of systematically cracking down on civil society groups since 2024.

The 49-page report, “‘We Are Living on Borrowed Time’: Repression of Civil Society in Tunisia” documents the Tunisian authorities’ escalating repression of local and international civil society groups, workers, members, and affiliates through the weaponization of abusive prosecutions, arbitrary arrests, detention, financial and criminal investigations, mass suspensions, and threats of dissolution.

Tunisia is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which guarantee the rights to freedom of association, assembly and expression, to not be subject to arbitrary arrest or detention, and to a fair trial.

“Civil society groups in Tunisia play a key role in holding power to account, delivering essential services, and advocating for people’s human rights,” said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “It is clear that the authorities are abusing every tool at their disposal to close the space for civil society in Tunisia and shut these organizations down.”

“By dismantling the space for civil society, the authorities are trying to ensure no one is left to hold them accountable,” Khawaja said. “The international community needs to take urgent action to help preserve what remains of civic space in Tunisia, ensure protections for rights defenders, and end this drastic backsliding on human rights.”

Since 2022, President Kais Saied has publicly demonised civil society and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), portraying them as a threat to national sovereignty. Between May and December 2024, the authorities arrested several workers at groups that provide aid to refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants and those that fight racism and discrimination. They have since prosecuted at least 47 people connected to nongovernmental groups and held at least 10 people in preventive detention for longer than 14 months, the maximum period permitted under Tunisian law.

The authorities have used laws criminalising assistance to foreigners with irregular immigration status and the 2015 counterterrorism and money laundering law to bring abusive charges against human rights defenders and workers at nongovernmental groups.

HRW said the Tunisian authorities should stop restricting freedom of association and end abusive investigations, judicial harassment, and criminalization of civil society groups’ work and their members. They should release all NGO workers, activists, and human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in connection with their legitimate work and overturn unjust convictions. Parliament should ensure that associations can operate freely, including by withdrawing draft laws that would violate the right to freedom of association.

The international community, including the European Union and its member states, should privately and publicly urge Tunisian authorities to release all nongovernmental organization workers, human rights defenders, activists, and others arbitrarily detained, overturn convictions in connection with groups’ legitimate work, and end the crackdown on civil society.