Fifteen years after protests in Tunisia sparked the 2011 Arab uprising and gave rise to a flourishing civil society, President Kais Saied grabbed power on July 25, 2021, kicking off a slide back into authoritarianism. Since then, the president has consolidated power and replaced the 2014 Constitution. He severely undermined the separation of powers by weakening parliament and eroding the independence of the judiciary. Government repression has targeted political opposition and independent voices, with authorities intimidating, arbitrarily detaining, prosecuting, and convicting critics for exercising their human rights.

Since May 2024, Saied and his government have systematically cracked down on civil society, threatening to collapse one of the last pillars of participation in public affairs in the country. Collectively, these actions amount to an attempt to shutter civil society in Tunisia.

This report documents the Tunisian authorities’ escalating repression of local and international civil society organisations and their members, as authorities target them with arbitrary arrests and detention, financial and criminal investigations, arbitrary suspensions, and moves to tighten the legislative framework governing associations and restrict the right to freedom of association.

Report by the Human Rights Watch