Tunisian authorities have increasingly escalated their crackdown on human rights defenders and independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through arbitrary arrests, detention, asset freezes, bank restrictions and court-ordered suspensions, all under the pretext of fighting “suspicious” foreign funding and shielding “national interests,” Amnesty International said today.
In an unprecedented step six NGO workers and human rights defenders working for the Tunisian Council for Refugees are being criminally prosecuted on charges solely related to their legitimate work supporting refugees and asylum seekers. The opening trial session on 16 October was adjourned until 24 November.
In the past four months alone, at least 14 Tunisian and international NGOs received court orders to suspend their activities for 30 days. This includes four prominent organizations in the past three weeks; the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES), Nawaat and the Tunis branch of the World Organization against Torture (OMCT).
“Instead of targeting organizations working to support economic, social and political rights, Tunisian authorities must end this campaign of intimidation and immediately release all NGO workers and human rights defenders detained or prosecuted in reprisal for exercising their civic rights and lift all related provisional measures, such as asset freezes. They must drop abusive charges, lift arbitrary suspensions, and end criminal prosecutions of organizations lawfully conducting their activities.”
Since 2023, Tunisian authorities have frequently smeared NGOs receiving foreign funding. In May 2024, President Kais Saied accused NGOs working on migration of being “traitors” and “[foreign] agents,” and of seeking the “settlement” of Sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia.
“This multi-pronged judicial and administrative harassment has created a pervasive climate of fear, restricting the rights to association and freedom of expression and smothering Tunisia’s civic space.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International“
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