Tunisian authorities have intensified their crackdown on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through court-ordered suspensions and threats of dissolution, judicial and administrative harassment on the pretext of combating “suspicious” foreign funding and protecting “national interests,” Amnesty International said today.
Over the past two years, authorities have increasingly targeted organizations working on human rights, migration, anti-racism, election monitoring, corruption, media freedom and social justice. What began with intimidation, arbitrary restrictions, asset freezes, and politically motivated criminal prosecutions targeting staff or board members has now evolved into attempts to use judicial means to eliminate NGOs altogether.
NGOs operating in Tunisia face an increasingly hostile environment in which legal and judicial mechanisms are being weaponized to suppress independent voices and undermine freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
“NGOs operating in Tunisia face an increasingly hostile environment in which legal and judicial mechanisms are being weaponized to suppress independent voices and undermine freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. This extends to the threat of being dissolved for defending rights and freedoms,” said Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
