Tunisia's Civil Society Under Siege as Authorities Intensify Crackdown

Tunisia's civil society has contracted sharply under sustained pressure from state authorities. A 49-page report released by Human Rights Watch on Wednesday documented the scope: at least 47 people connected to nongovernmental organisations have been prosecuted, at least 10 held in preventive detention for periods exceeding 14 months—beyond what Tunisian law permits—and at least 14 convicted and sentenced to prison following trials in 2025 and 2026. The crackdown extends across multiple fronts: criminal prosecution, financial investigation, mass suspension of associations, and the threat of outright dissolution.

The targeting has been particularly severe for organisations working on migration, a politically volatile issue in Tunisia. From May through December 2024, authorities arrested workers at groups providing assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, as well as people working against racism and discrimination. The timing coincided with heightened tensions over the treatment of sub-Saharan Africans in the country. President Kais Saied had framed the presence of sub-Saharan refugees and migrants in explicitly demographic terms in February 2023, describing it as part of a "criminal plan" to alter Tunisia's composition. Authorities have weaponised laws criminalising assistance to foreigners with irregular status and the 2015 counterterrorism and money-laundering statute to bring charges against civil society workers. Among those convicted is Saadia Mosbah, a prominent human rights defender sentenced to eight years in prison and a substantial fine on financial crime charges in March. Five employees of organisations assisting asylum seekers have also been convicted on charges tied to their work and their organisations' legally registered mandates. Those organisations have since ceased operations.

The pressure has taken financial form as well. At the end of 2024, shortly before the presidential election, the Tax Evasion Investigation and Prevention Brigade notified at least a dozen associations—including Amnesty International's regional office and the anticorruption group I Watch—that they were under investigation. The investigations froze at least two associations' bank accounts and created operational burdens that constrained their work. Private banks have imposed their own restrictions, revoking hard currency access, blocking or returning foreign funds, or closing accounts entirely. Human Rights Watch characterised the pattern as authorities using financial and criminal procedures to intimidate civil society.

Between July and October 2025 and again from April to May 2026, authorities suspended organisations using Decree-Law 2011-88 on associations. Human Rights Watch identified at least 20 suspended civil society associations, though the exact number remains unclear without official data. The suspensions were marked by procedural irregularities: some associations did not receive required formal warnings, others attempted to respond but received no reply. Lawyers supporting suspended organisations reported that officials dismissed appeals from about 30 groups. Once all avenues of appeal are exhausted, these organisations face dissolution. Al Khatt, which publishes the independent online magazine Inkyfada, and the antiracism organisation Mnemty are currently in dissolution proceedings. The judiciary, which orders the suspensions, has been under executive control since 2022, when Saied took expansive measures that Human Rights Watch said undermined judicial independence.

The chilling effect extends beyond formal action. Rabie Kacem, a member of the Nafas civic collective, said activists now think twice before speaking, writing or organising. "We are talking about an environment where civic and human rights work itself has become linked to the possibility of being prosecuted, defamed or pressured," he said. The pressure has reached journalists as well. Noureddine Ahmed, a photojournalist and president of the photojournalists committee within Tunisia's National Journalists Union, said restrictions have become more pronounced over the past five years. Journalists are stopped while working, asked to show identification or obtain permits before speaking to citizens, sometimes taken to police stations for questioning. Equipment has been damaged or confiscated. Reporting on migration has become particularly sensitive, and some foreign media organisations have become reluctant to work with Tunisian journalists on migration and political stories. Ahmed estimated that the number of photojournalists has fallen by about half as some lost work and foreign outlets became unwilling to take responsibility for local correspondents amid arrest and prosecution risks. "There is no freedom of the press in Tunisia now," Ahmed said.

Wissem Sghaier, spokesperson for the Al-Jomhouri Party, connected the prosecutions to a broader institutional crisis. The concentration of political decision-making in Saied's hands has weakened separation of powers and allowed state institutions to enforce political decisions. "When there is an environment characterised by attacks on freedoms, arrests, persecution and targeting every different voice, it is normal that some voices do not want to put themselves in prison," he told Al Jazeera.

The significance of this moment lies in what preceded it. After the 2011 uprising that ended the rule of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, civil society expanded dramatically. Associations, rights groups and independent organisations became central to Tunisia's political and social landscape, documenting abuses, assisting vulnerable communities and providing citizens with new ways to challenge authorities. That space narrowed sharply after Saied took sweeping political measures in July 2021, suspending parliament, dismissing the government and beginning to rule by decree. Since 2022, Saied has publicly portrayed civil society and NGOs as threats to national sovereignty. His government has defended these measures as necessary to fight corruption and protect Tunisia from conspiracies and destabilisation attempts. Human Rights Watch, however, documented that authorities have increasingly used legal and administrative measures to restrict independent organisations and their members.

The threat continues to evolve. Human Rights Watch said Tunisian authorities have repeatedly sought to replace or tighten the legal framework governing associations. Two draft laws—one leaked in early 2022 and another submitted to parliament in October 2023—would give the government significant control over the establishment, activities, operations and funding of independent organisations. The organisation called on authorities to end abusive investigations, release arbitrarily detained NGO workers and activists, and overturn convictions it considers unjust. It urged parliament to withdraw legislation undermining freedom of association and called on the European Union and member states to press Tunisia to end the crackdown. Bassam Khawaja, Human Rights Watch's deputy Middle East and North Africa director, framed the stakes plainly: "By dismantling the space for civil society, the authorities are trying to ensure no one is left to hold them accountable."