Tunisia grants conditional release to more than 3000 political prisoners

For the first time in 20 years Human Rights watch received access to Tunisian prisons. The delegation visited Mornaguia Prison, Tunisia’s biggest facility, on February 1. A Justice Ministry official told Human Rights Watch that prior to President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s ouster, Tunisia, a country of 10.5 million inhabitants, had 31,000 prisoners. One of [...]

UN report confirms gap between law and reality, torture, secret detentions and police harassment in Tunisia under Ben Ali

The United Nations just published a report on its website which describes the fact-finding mission of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism in January 2010. On the basis of the evidence he gathered, he observed a pattern of unacknowledged detention being used vis-à-vis terrorist suspects. During the [...]

Surveillance reports of Tunisian General Directorate of Public Security shed light on police state and human rights violations, fear of return of Islamism is not warranted

Reporter Hasan Almustafa found a surveillance report after the fall of Ben Ali’s regime in Tunisia which sheds some light on the workings of the police in Tunisia in its ‘fight against extremism’. (English translation here.) On the basis of administrative order 1120/SAM of 6 October 2002 and a message from the General Directorate of [...]

Ben Ali calls violence in Tunisia a result of terrorists, but changes his assessment three days later

In a speech to the nation President Ben Ali said on the 11th of January: Violent incidents, sometimes bloody, which have killed civilians and caused injuries to several officers of the security forces, have been perpetrated by hooded gangs who have attacked during the night, to public institutions and even assaulted citizens at home, in [...]

Tunisia sentences eight to jail on terror charges

A court sentenced eight Tunisians, two of them refugees in Europe, to up to 12 years in jail on charges of belonging to a militant group and inciting terrorism, a lawyer said. The eight had denied the charges and said their confessions were obtained under torture, lawyer Samir Ben Amor, who is also secretary general [...]

Tunisians forbidden to contact EU

Al-bab says that Tunisia’s parliament has approved a law which will criminalise human rights activists and others who make contact with “foreign organisations” with the aim of harming the country’s “vital interests and its economic security”. Offenders face up to five years’ jail in peacetime or 12 years in wartime. The new measure – in [...]

Tunisia: Overbroad terrorism offences undermine children rights, says UN Committee

On 11 June, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted its concluding observations on Tunisia’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee expressed concern that the very broad definition of terrorist acts adopted by Tunisia may have adverse consequences for the protection of children’s rights and may [...]

HRC Communication 1544/2007 Hamida vs Canada on non-refoulement to Tunisia

Mr. Hamida, a Tunisian national,  was living in Canada arrived in Canada on 2 October 1999, where he claimed refugee status, alleging that he had a well-founded fear of persecution in his country on account of his political opinions. He says that, at the age of 18, he was taken on as an administrative assistant [...]

ECtHR Chamber Judgment in Trabelsi v. Italy

On 13 April, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a judgment (press release in english; judgment in French) condemning Italy for the violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) and Article 34 (right of individual petition). In a nutshell the Court held that the expulsion of an Islamic fundamentalist to [...]

AI: Tunisia attemps media black-out on human rights violations

Amnesty International has condemned the Tunisian authorities for effectively barring two human rights organizations from presenting their reports on the harassment of former political prisoners to the media this week. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), journalists were prevented from attending a press conference on Wednesday 24 March in the capital city Tunis to launch [...]