Introduction
The crackdown on human rights in Tunisia has escalated in recent years, targeting human rights defenders and independent non-governmental organisations (NGOs) throughout the country. Authorities resort to arbitrary arrests, detention, asset freezes, bank restrictions, and court-ordered suspensions, under the pretext of fighting suspicious foreign funding and shielding national interests, as reported by Amnesty International (2025).
The disrespect for human rights is spread-out throughout the country and endangers civilians, workers, and all those that seek justice, and protect minorities in Tunisia.
The Crackdown on Humanitarian Workers
Last week, Amnesty International called to attention the Tunisian authorities’ escalation of crackdowns against NGOs workers and human rights defenders, even targeting directors and former staff of these organisations, under the allegation of supporting irregular migrants or financial crimes tied to lawful NGO funding.
These people are being detained and prosecuted on the basis of abusive and unfounded criminal charges for exercising their civic rights and defending children’s and migrants’ rights across the country; a situation that is creating a climate of fear, as highlighted by Erika Guevara-Rosas (Amnesty, 2025):
This multi-pronged judicial and administrative harassment has created a pervasive climate of fear, restricting the rights to association and freedom of expression and smothering Tunisia’s civic space.
This crackdown extended to organisations that were monitoring the 2024 elections that elected President Kais Saied, to ensure their proper conduct. By October 2024, the Ministry of Finance had opened investigations into at least ten organisations and by 2025, at least 20 NGOs experienced undue banking restrictions and delays that obstructed the receipt of foreign funds (Amnesty, 2025).
There is a steady erosion of Tunisia’s civil society, going against the Decree Law 88 on Associations, which allowed for the establishment of NGOs by notification and was adopted in the 2011 revolution, being one of the most significant achievements until now (Amnesty, 2023). Authorities are systematically dismantling the rule of law, shrinking civic space, and creating obstacles for any form of dissidence.
Since 2023, Tunisian authorities have targeted NGOs receiving foreign funding. After 2024, they escalated their rhetoric, accusing NGOs working on migration of being “traitors” and “foreign agents”, language used by President Kais Saied himself, who also claimed that these organisations were seeking to settle Sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia.
Arbitrary Detentions and Unlawful Charges Against Several NGOs
Since May 2024, the founder and director of the Tunisian Council for Refugees (CTR) Mustapha Djemali, and CTR project manager Abderrazek Krimi, have been under arbitrary pre-trial detention, alongside staff from the same organisation.The charges applied are vague in nature, such as for the formation of an organisation, as well as other serious accusations, such as aiding clandestine entry of migrants; offences which can result up to 13 years in prison. (Amnesty, 2025).
Furthermore, three staff members of the Tunisian branch of the organisation Tunisie Terre d’Asile, a Tunisian branch of the French organisation France Terre d’Asile, have been held in pre-trial detention since 2024. Sherifa Riahi, Yadh Bousselmi, and Mohamed Joo will face trial in December 2025, on charges of sheltering individuals illegally entering or leaving the territory, and facilitating the irregular entry, exit, movement, or stay of a foreigner, all of which are unfounded allegations.
There are also allegations that the NGO workers are backed up by Europe as a larger plan to promote the social and economic integration of irregular migrants into Tunisia and their permanent settlement, which is also not proved by the authorities.
Other NGOs have also been targeted in criminal investigations and detentions, such as children’s rights organisation Children of the Moon of Medenine, and anti-racism organisation Mnemty, whose legal representatives have been detained since 2024. Authorities have also detained the Executive Director of the Association for the Promotion of the Right to Difference (ADD), Salwa Ghrissa, since December 2024.
Amnesty International has also been placed under investigation by the Ministry of Finance’s Tax Evasion Investigation Unit (BILF), which has been examining the organisation for accusations linked to financial crimes that have not been proved up to this day, along with 10 others, since October 2024. In the following months, the BILF summoned Amnesty International’s Board President and two staff members for interrogation, while also calling in several other organisations operating in the country.
NGOs have also faced undue banking restrictions and delays in receiving foreign funding, with banks either refusing to process their transfers or returning their funds to donors. At least two banks instructed organisations to close their accounts without justification, and several NGOs subsequently struggled to open new accounts, disrupting operations and forcing at least one to close its Tunisia office (Everett, 2025).
Pervading Injustice in Tunisia
International NGOs such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have decried a sharp decline in civil liberties and a pervading injustice in Tunisia, with authorities escalating the crackdown on opposition since President Kais Saied came to power in 2019 (HRW, 2025; Amnesty, 2025).
Once considered as the only country to emerge relatively unscathed from the Arab Spring in 2011, with a democracy in full flow in following years after the power grab in July 2021 and the dissolution of the parliament, led to the President ruling by decree and witnessed Saied jail many of his critics. A newly ratified Constitution after a boycotted referendum in 2022, expanded the President’s power, while media figures and lawyers critical of Saied have also been prosecuted and detained under a Fake News Law enacted in 2022. As stated by the deputy Middle East and North Africa director at HRW, Bassam Khawaja (2025):
It is clear that Tunisian authorities deployed all their efforts to silence, prosecute, and imprison President Kais Saied’s critics and opponents in order to favor his re-election.
HRW (2025) highlighted that Tunis’s Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear, on November 17th, the appeals of more than 30 people unjustly sentenced to heavy prison terms in a politically motivated conspiracy case mass trial in April.
As of November, of the same year, over 80 people were detained on political grounds or for exercising their rights, including political opponents, activists, lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders, and social media users.
Security forces are also accused of continued abuse against migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees with impunity, with death at the sea of those fleeing to Europe continuing at an alarming rate.
Conclusion
Since the 2019 election of President Kais Saied, followed by his dissolution of the Assembly and the adoption of a new Constitution, his rule has increasingly consolidated power and entrenched the authorities’ abuses and repression.
Political opponents and human rights workers have been systematically persecuted and imprisoned without proper charges, with NGOs being targeted by the government under charges of forming an organisation, assisting clandestine entry, and alleged financial crimes tied to lawful NGO funding, which is usually foreign.
All indicators show that the Tunisian authorities are disregarding human rights and putting the population at risk. International actors, including states, NGOs and United Nations bodies, have highlighted the need for close monitoring of the situation and for measures that would enable civil society organisations to continue their work supporting vulnerable groups, including migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and children.
Bibliography
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CPJ (2025). The law powering Tunisia’s crackdown on the press. Committee to protect journalists. Retrieved 2025, October 22 from https://cpj.org/2025/12/the-law-powering-tunisias-crackdown-on-the-press/.
Everett, M. (2025). Rights groups decry Tunisia’s ‘injustice’, crackdown on activists. Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2025, October 23 from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/14/rights-groups-decry-tunisias-injustice-crackdown-on-activists.
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