Rights 240

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 26 August 2026

Prisons in Tunisia: Heat Wave, A Double Sentence

Living within a few square meters, sharing a bed (when the opportunity presents itself), drinking, eating, and sleeping all in the same claustrophobic space, with no view other than the surrounding concrete walls. As Tunisia staggers through crippling heat, thousands of prisoners are serving a double sentence: prison time and the indecent conditions of their detention. Several suspicious deaths within the span of a few days reflect a reality in Tunisian prisons that the government has failed to come to terms with.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 08 August 2026

Migrants Tortured: Tunisia Accused, EU Complicit

Tunisia. Four migrants. Cages in the desert, sales made to Libyan smugglers, sea wrecks provoked by authorities. For the first time, these abuses have been brought before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. A tribunal which Tunisia has taken great pains to make less accessible for the victims of human rights violations.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 29 June 2026

Migrants in Tunisia: The Chilling Reality of Phantom Children

Without legal status, school or healthcare, thousands of migrant children are growing up in the blindspot of the Tunisian government. Ever since the suspension of the right to asylum and under pressure of growing violence, the reality that these children face—begging, human trafficking, arbitrary detention, forced deportation to Algeria or Libya—is chilling.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 22 June 2026

Migrants in Tunisia: The Fable of “Voluntary Return”

After facing years of criticism regarding its brutal immigration management, the Tunisian government has found a new label for its mass expulsions: “voluntary return.” Behind this term borrowed from humanitarian aid, testimonies, data and international law tell an altogether different story.

Rights Maha Abdelhamid 25 April 2026

Silenced and Forgotten: The Story of Black Tunisian Activist Slim Marzoug

Slim Marzoug was one of the first Black Tunisians to publicly raise the issue of anti-Black racism in Tunisia in the 1960s. And yet he has nearly been forgotten, his story never having been openly recounted. Nevertheless, the circumstances of his confrontation with authoritarian power are ever engraved in the memory of those who knew him.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 04 February 2026

Sub-Saharan Migrants in Tunisia: Young Mothers on the Fringes of Society

In Tunisia, migrant women give birth in precarious conditions, exposing their newborns to illness and malnutrition. Accused of contributing to a so-called “demographic change” within the country, they face administrative obstacles, racism and poverty. Their survival depends largely on the charity and limited assistance of international organizations.

Rights La rédaction 20 December 2025

Criminalizing Dissent: Six Stories from Tunisia’s Political and Media Crackdown

Tunisia’s political and media landscape has changed drastically since 2021, with expanded use of criminal law against journalists, opposition figures, and commentators critical of authorities. This article presents the profiles of six individuals targeted within the scope of the government’s crackdown on dissidence: journalist Chadha Hadj Mbarek, media commentator Mourad Zeghidi, opposition politician Issam Chebbi, party leader Abir Moussi, young journalist and political activist Siwar Bargaoui, and lawyer–politician Ghazi Chaouachi.

Rights Najla Ben Salah 14 September 2025

Tunisians Dead in Italy: Families in anguish, government indifferent

The families of Tunisians who have disappeared in Italy no longer rely on the government to shed light on the fate of their children. Their stories reveal the solitary struggle carried on by the relatives of undocumented Tunisian migrants in the face of a government which, through its silence, is either failing in its duties or complicit in the ongoing tragedy.

Rights Najla Ben Salah 19 June 2025

Tunisia-LGBTQI+ Community: The truth behind official discourse

Alarming accounts of the systematic humiliation faced by LGBTQI+ persons in prison expose the harsh reality that this community endures in Tunisia. An image very far from that which the government would hope to sell to its partners in the West.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 29 May 2025

Tunisian Prisons: Lawless Zones

Hungry, mistreated and lacking medical care, prisoners in Tunisia find themselves facing a double sentence: incarceration and—more insidious—the violence that it entails. A shocking report warns against the conditions endured by inmates inside Tunisian prisons.

Rights Najla Ben Salah 16 May 2025

Judicial Vacancy: The Kais Saied System

The structural dysfunction that has paralyzed Tunisia’s judiciary institution explains how the government has subjugated the justice system and weakened the role of magistrates.

Rights Mahdi Jlassi 22 March 2025

Tunisia: Authorities impose silence around political trial

Could the release of certain prisoners of conscience promise a new phase in which the regime decides to let up on its policy of repression? Nothing is less certain. Paranoia around the case involving those accused of “plotting to undermine national security”—a trial which opened with a remote hearing and which authorities have attempted to bury under an imposed media blackout—does not bode well.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 31 December 2024

Tunisia: A Nation Under Moral Policing?

Over the past several weeks, the prison sentences received by certain “influencers” have been at the center of debate in Tunisia. But beyond these cases which have drawn a great deal of attention in the media, Tunisia’s entire justice system—and in particular its policy of normalizing incarceration—is called into question.

Rights Najla Ben Salah 23 December 2024

Migration in Tunisia: The government’s doublespeak

Praised for its “feats” by Italy’s extreme right, the immigration policy implemented by President Kais Saied builds off a strategy whose objectives are twofold. Here is how the government has succeeded in killing two birds with one stone.

Rights La rédaction 15 July 2024

Nawaat’s legal representative summoned to answer questions about Journalistic work

Nawaat received a summons this morning, Monday, July 15, 2024, asking its legal representative to appear tomorrow, Tuesday, July 16, before the Criminal Affairs Sub-Department office in Gorjani, Room 125. This office has a reputation for looking into and prosecuting cases involving the electronic content of writers, journalists, opinion makers, and their organizations.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 29 May 2024

Timeline: Journalists under fire of Saied regime

More and more journalists are being harassed, prosecuted, and imprisoned. Freedom of the press is at an all-time low in Tunisia. Since July 25 and the promulgation of Decree-law 54, hostility towards journalists has been on the rise.

Rights La rédaction 20 May 2024

Houssem Hajlaoui Imprisoned: Collusion Between Police and Prosecutor

The crackdown on free speech in Tunisia continues as another critical voice silenced. Houssem Hajlaoui, a prominent tech activist and web architect, was arrested on May 14th and thrown behind bars in a shocking display of the regime’s intolerance for criticism.

Rights Rihab Boukhayatia 20 February 2024

Tunisia faces influx of Sudanese immigrants: Report in Lac 1

“Even dogs deserve a more decent life,” says a young Sudanese man, one of thousands who have arrived in Tunisia in the past months. In Tunis’ northern suburb of Lac 1, a makeshift camp has sprung up, a sprawl of sheet metal tents, tarps and used blankets spread across the ground. The contrast with the neighborhood’s ostentatious architecture is glaring.