Tunis, Tunisia – Tunisia’s authorities have sharply intensified pressure on civil society, prosecuting activists and NGO workers, investigating groups’ finances and suspending dozens of associations in a campaign that Human Rights Watch says has severely narrowed the civic space that emerged after the ۲۰۱۱ revolution.
In a ۴۹-page report released on Wednesday, the rights group documented what it described as escalating repression of local and international civil society organisations, their workers and affiliates through arrests, lengthy preventive detention, criminal and financial investigations, mass suspensions and threats of dissolution.
Human Rights Watch said authorities have prosecuted at least ۴۷ people connected to nongovernmental organisations and held at least ۱۰ people in preventive detention for longer than ۱۴ months, exceeding the maximum period permitted under Tunisian law.
After trials in ۲۰۲۵ and ۲۰۲۶, at least ۱۴ people connected to civil society have been convicted and sentenced to prison, the rights group said.
Among them is prominent human rights defender Saadia Mosbah, who was sentenced to eight years in prison and a heavy fine on financial crime charges on March ۱۹, according to the report.
Five employees of organisations assisting asylum seekers have also been convicted on charges linked to their work and the mandates of their legally registered associations, Human Rights Watch said. The organisations have since ceased their activities.
How has the pressure widened?
The crackdown has extended beyond individual activists to organisations working on some of the country’s most politically sensitive issues, particularly migration.
From May to December ۲۰۲۴, authorities arrested several workers at groups providing assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants as well as people working to combat racism and discrimination, according to Human Rights Watch.
The arrests were made when tensions were heightened over the treatment of sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia.
In February ۲۰۲۳, President Kais Saied said the presence of sub-Saharan refugees and migrants was part of a “criminal plan” to change Tunisia’s demographic composition and described it as a form of “occupation”.
Human Rights Watch said authorities have used laws criminalising assistance to foreigners with irregular immigration status and Tunisia’s ۲۰۱۵ “counterterrorism” and money-laundering law to bring what the rights group described as abusive charges against human rights defenders and workers at NGOs.
The pressure has also taken a financial form.
At the end of ۲۰۲۴, shortly before the presidential election, the Tax Evasion Investigation and Prevention Brigade notified at least a dozen associations, including Amnesty International’s regional office and the anticorruption group I Watch, that they were under investigation, according to Human Rights Watch.
The investigations created an administrative and operational burden and resulted in the freezing of at least two associations’ bank accounts, the rights group said.
Private banks have also imposed restrictions on some associations, including revoking their access to hard currency or convertible dinar accounts, blocking or returning foreign funds sent to Tunisian accounts, or closing their accounts.
Human Rights Watch said the widespread use of such investigations raised concerns that the authorities were using financial and criminal procedures to intimidate civil society organisations.
Why are associations being suspended?
Authorities have also moved against organisations collectively.
From July to October ۲۰۲۵ and again from April to May this year, authorities used Decree-Law ۲۰۱۱-۸۸ on associations to suspend organisations, Human Rights Watch said.
The rights group identified at least ۲۰ suspended civil society associations while noting that the exact number could not be established without official data.
Human Rights Watch said the suspensions were marked by procedural irregularities. Some associations did not receive the formal warnings required under Tunisian law while others tried to respond but received no reply.
Lawyers supporting suspended organisations told the rights group that officials had dismissed appeals from about ۳۰ associations.
The groups face a serious risk of dissolution once all avenues of appeal have been exhausted, Human Rights Watch said.
Al Khatt, which publishes the independent online magazine Inkyfada, and the antiracism organisation Mnemty are currently facing dissolution proceedings, according to the report.
The judiciary, which orders the suspensions, has been under the control of the executive since ۲۰۲۲ when Saied took expansive measures that Human Rights Watch said undermined judicial independence.
Associations have also reported being denied accreditation to observe elections, facing tighter restrictions on access to prisons and detention facilities, and having public events banned, according to Human Rights Watch.
Is the pressure changing how people speak?
For activists, the impact is increasingly felt before authorities take action: in decisions about whether to speak, organise or work publicly at all.
Rabie Kacem, a member of the Nafas civic collective, said the concerns raised by Human Rights Watch reflected what activists have been experiencing.
“Today, an activist or anyone interested in public affairs in Tunisia thinks twice before speaking, writing or organising an activity,” Kacem said.
“We are talking about an environment where civic and human rights work itself has become linked to the possibility of being prosecuted, defamed or pressured.”
The pressure has also affected journalists documenting events.
Noureddine Ahmed, a photojournalist and president of the photojournalists committee within Tunisia’s National Journalists Union, said restrictions on journalists had become more pronounced over the past five years.
Journalists increasingly have been stopped while working in the streets, asked to show professional identification or obtain permits before speaking to citizens, and sometimes taken to police stations for questioning, he said. In some cases, he said, journalists have had their equipment damaged or confiscated.
Reporting on migration has become particularly sensitive, Ahmed said, and some foreign media organisations have become more reluctant to work with Tunisian journalists on migration and political stories.
He said monitoring of journalists’ social media activity and limited access to information had contributed to a wider climate of fear.
Ahmed estimated that the number of photojournalists has fallen by about half as some lost work and some foreign media organisations became less willing to take responsibility for local correspondents amid the risk of arrest or prosecution.
“There is no freedom of the press in Tunisia now,” Ahmed said.
Wissem Sghaier, spokesperson for Al-Jomhouri Party, said the prosecutions were part of a broader crisis involving the balance of powers, judicial independence and freedom of expression.
He said the concentration of political decision-making in the hands of Saied has weakened the separation of powers and allowed state institutions to be used to enforce political decisions.
“When there is an environment characterised by attacks on freedoms, arrests, persecution and targeting every different voice, it is normal that some voices do not want to put themselves in prison,” he told Al Jazeera.
What changed after the ۲۰۱۱ revolution?
The pressure is particularly significant in a country where civil society expanded dramatically after the ۲۰۱۱ uprising that ended the rule of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Associations, rights groups and independent organisations became an important part of Tunisia’s political and social landscape, documenting abuses, assisting vulnerable communities and providing citizens with new ways to challenge authorities.
That space narrowed sharply after Saied took sweeping political measures in July ۲۰۲۱, suspending parliament, dismissing the government and beginning to rule by decree.
Since ۲۰۲۲, Saied has publicly portrayed civil society and NGOs as a threat to national sovereignty, Human Rights Watch said.
Saied and his government have defended his political measures as necessary to fight corruption and protect Tunisia from what they describe as conspiracies and attempts to destabilise the country.
Human Rights Watch, however, said the authorities have increasingly used legal and administrative measures to restrict independent organisations and their members.
What happens next?
Human Rights Watch said the Tunisian authorities have repeatedly sought to replace or tighten the legal framework governing associations.
Two draft laws, one leaked in early ۲۰۲۲ and another submitted to parliament in October ۲۰۲۳, would give the government significant control over the establishment, activities, operations and funding of independent organisations, according to the rights group.
It called on Tunisian authorities to end abusive investigations, judicial harassment and what it described as the criminalisation of legitimate civil society work.
The organisation also called for the release of NGO workers, activists and human rights defenders it considers arbitrarily detained in connection with their legitimate work and for convictions it considers unjust to be overturned.
It urged parliament to withdraw legislation that would undermine freedom of association and called on the European Union and its member states to press Tunisia to end the crackdown.
Tunisia is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which protect the freedoms of association, assembly and expression as well as safeguards against arbitrary arrest and detention and guarantees of a fair trial.
“By dismantling the space for civil society, the authorities are trying to ensure no one is left to hold them accountable,” said Bassam Khawaja, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director.
“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.”
