The Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) denounced that the Tunisian government has temporarily suspended the activities of at least 14 human rights organizations and that over 600 national, regional, and international organizations working for human rights in the country are under threat of suspension.
These suspensions occur in the context of the country’s government consolidating its authoritarian drift. In 2021, President Kais Said dissolved Parliament and established a presidential system replacing the parliamentary system set up in 2011 after the “Arab Spring” ended Ben Ali's dictatorship; prior to his re-election in 2024, he claimed full powers and reformed the political system and the Constitution, further consolidating his power.
Since then, repression against Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) particularly Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) and Queer Human Rights Defenders (QHRDs) in the country has escalated.
The persecution happens also after 25 Tunisian organizations issued a statement condemning state repression against a protest denouncing severe environmental and health crisis caused by a chemical plant in Gabès.
Among the suspended organizations are the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), a leading feminist organization that provides urgent support to women; the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) a key organization defending the rights of migrants; and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) a leading global network dedicated to the prevention and elimination of torture. In Tunisia, OMCT has played a particularly significant role, working closely with queer activists and documenting abuses targeting LGBTQI+ people.
The Tunisian government seeks to justify its persecution of organizations by claiming that they are financed by interventionist Western interests. Together with the suspensions and in the context of the repression against the protests in Gabès, a coordinated media campaign started accusing publicly organizations of treason, of receiving foreign funding and implementing “Western agendas”.
This is happening while the same government aligns itself with the geopolitical and imperialist interests of Israel and the United States to legitimize the misnamed peace plan that perpetuates the genocide of the Palestinian people and the capitalist dispossession of Gaza territory.
The hypocritical exploitation of worthy and necessary anti-imperialist discourse to justify the persecution of dissenting voices and human rights defenders is something we know firsthand in our region, where – as in Tunisia – authoritarian leaders like Daniel Ortega appeal to this narrative, using one hand to repress their population while extending the other to the very imperialist and capitalist interests they claim to fight against, with the sole aim of consolidating their power and greed.
IM-Defensoras condemns the Tunisian government’s persecution of human rights organizations operating in the country and demands that they be allowed to resume their vital work; we also demand to guarantee the right to peaceful assembly specially in the context of the protests denouncing environmental and health crisis in Gabès.
We stand in solidarity with all the affected organizations, particularly with the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), an ally with whom we work at multiple levels, whose work denouncing and supporting cases of human rights violations around the world is widely recognized.