Four human rights organisations have urged the Human Rights Council to urgently address the deterioration of the human rights situation in Tunisia.
Development Diaries reports that the four human rights organisations – International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) – said this on Tuesday ahead of the 53rd council’s session.
The organisations, in a letter, warned against the rapidly worsening situation in Tunisia, urging states to seize the opportunity of the Human Rights Council’s session to address it.
They further called on the council and member states to press the Tunisian authorities to comply with their obligations under international human rights law, particularly those guaranteeing the rights to a fair trial, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and non-discrimination.
‘The Human Rights Council should urge Tunisia to end the ongoing crackdown on peaceful dissent and freedom of expression, and drop charges against, and release, all individuals being detained and prosecuted solely on the basis of their peaceful political activities and the exercise of their human rights’, the letter read.
‘The Council should also call on Tunisia to conduct a prompt, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent investigation into a wave of anti-Black violence – including assaults and summary evictions – against black African foreign nationals, including migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, and bring to justice anyone reasonably suspected to be responsible, and provide victims with access to justice and effective remedies’.
Tunisia’s human rights record has been worrying since President Kais Saied took charge of the country in July 2021.
In September 2021, the president issued Presidential Decree 2021-117, granting him sweeping powers to issue new laws by decree without review or oversight by any other authority.
The decree allows him to use decree laws to regulate nearly every aspect of public life, including political parties, the courts, trade unions, civil society, the media and human rights.
Tunisia has witnessed a significant rollback on human rights over the past two years, as judicial independence guarantees have been dismantled and individual judges and prosecutors have been subjected to arbitrary dismissal.
The country has also witnessed politicised criminal prosecutions and increased interference by the executive.
Freedom House ranked Tunisia as ‘partly free’ in its 2023 Freedom in the World report on political rights and civil liberties, with the Maghreb nation earning 64 points out of a possible 100.
Development Diaries calls on President Saied to adhere to the international human rights laws to which Tunisia is a signatory and end incidences of rights abuse in the country.
Photo source: Dennis Jarvis
