Rights organisations and UN experts have warned that the continued silence of the UN Human Rights Council and UN member states over developments in Tunisia is allowing the authorities to continue suppressing civil society and undermining the rule of law.
The warning came during the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, which concluded on Wednesday in Geneva, where UN experts and civil society representatives expressed deep concern over what they described as the worsening human rights situation in Tunisia.
Human Rights Watch, which documented the UN statement, said “the continued silence from UN member states all but signalled a free pass for Tunisian authorities to continue escalating their crackdown on civic space.”
On Tuesday, the organisation said: “Five years after Tunisian President Kais Saied seized extraordinary executive powers, the country’s human rights situation has deteriorated dramatically. The resurgent authoritarianism has translated into systematic repression of civil society, journalists, political opponents, independent lawyers, and migrants, and erosion of the rule of law.”
In May, Volker Turk, the UN High Rights Chief, urged the Tunisian government to end what he described as a growing pattern of repression targeting civil society organisations, journalists, human rights defenders, opposition figures, activists and members of the judiciary, through the imposition of criminal proceedings and administrative impediments.
In the same context, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination warned about the serious situation facing migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who it said had been collectively expelled towards the Algerian and Libyan borders in life-threatening conditions that resulted in deaths and injuries.
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