While Tunisia is commemorating this year the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the republican system and the 20th anniversary of the accession of President Ben Ali to power, its record with respect to the treatment of human rights activists remains “very poor”, reveals a mission report, released on 27 September in Brussels by Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, on the occasion of the visit of Ms Sihem Bensedrine, Tunisian human rights defender and journalist, who is an emblematic figure of the fight for freedom and human rights in Tunisia. She is also a founding member and the spokeswoman of the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie, CNLT).
Further Information
Posted 27/10/2007 The mission report describes the harassment and abuses human rights defenders face in Tunisia while carrying out their peaceful and legitimate human rights activities. The report is based on what the joint Front Line and Human Rights First delegation witnessed and on information gathered during their mission to Tunisia, from 19 to 24 May 2007. The delegates visited the cities of Tunis, Bizerte and el-Kef. They met and interviewed human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, judges, and family members of some defenders. They also met with a representative of the Tunisian Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, as well as European and U.S. diplomats.The mission observed that there continues to be a pattern of harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders that clearly aims to dissuade them from carrying out their advocacy efforts. Human rights defenders and their families are subject to all forms of harassment ranging from intrusive surveillance to physical assault, slander campaigns and restrictions on their freedom of movement. “The persistent harassment faced by human rights defenders has placed them under intense emotional stress that has affected their family and professional life and for some of them has caused health problems,” said Natacha O'Brien, Front Line Protection Coordinator and member of the delegation that visited Tunisia.
“Basic rights that allow human rights defenders to freely and safely perform their activities are systematically violated by the Tunisian authorities. Human rights defender’s freedoms of expression, of association and of assembly are severely curtailed. Independent human rights organisations are denied legal recognition. Even the few human rights groups that were allowed to legally register by the authorities have faced judicial harassment and administrative interference,” added Tunisian human rights journalist Sihem Bensedrine. The report explains how human rights NGOs are routinely forbidden from holding meetings and public events. Human rights defenders' denunciation of human rights violations in public statement and online has been met with retaliation measures on the part of the government. Numerous human rights activists have been prosecuted for publicly exposing human rights abuses. Access to independent websites and blogs that covers the human rights situation in Tunisia has been blocked by the authorities.
“The government’s strategy consists apparently of neutralizing the human rights movement by persistently hindering the exercise of their essential rights. Through this strategy the government tries to distract the attention of the human rights NGOs and keep them busy with the violations they are themselves facing instead of concentrating their work on their usual monitoring and advocacy activities,” said Habib Nassar, the Middle East and North Africa researcher for the Human Rights Defenders Program at Human Rights First and member of the delegation that traveled to Tunisia.
On 24 July 2007, two months after the mission, the Tunisian President ordered the release of wrongly jailed human rights lawyer Mohammed Abbou. His imprisonment had become a symbol of the continuing repression faced by the human rights movement in Tunisia. Front Line and Human Rights First welcomed the release and considered it as a first step that needs to be completed by other moves by which the Tunisian government will cease its harassment of human rights defenders and respect its international obligations toward the human rights community. To this end, the mission report makes a series of recommendation to the Tunisian authorities but also to the European Union and the U.S. Government whose support to the Tunisian civil society is crucial.
“The European Union should actively implement the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders through a consistent, mainstreamed and result-oriented strategy that can tangibly impact on the situation of human rights defenders in Tunisia,” said Vincent Forest, Head of Front Line’s EU Office and member of the delegation that went to Tunisia. “For the Department of State's Guidelines on Non-Governmental Organizations not to become a dead letter, the U.S. government has to put them into practice and make the situation of human rights defenders a top concern of its policy toward Tunisia,” added Habib Nassar from Human Rights First.
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