In a recent video diffused on different social media accounts, including the account of one highly-followed Tunisian Instagram personality, a crowd of Tunisians vehemently protest the presence of sub-Saharan African migrants in the country. The display of unabashed racism, especially by those who insist that their grievances have nothing to do with racial prejudice, is frighteningly familiar.
As the CEDAW Committee prepares to examine the situation for women’s rights in Tunisia, feminists fear the Convention’s demise. In 2011, Tunisia withdrew its reserves regarding the CEDAW. A political decision that was not followed by legislative reform.
The new electoral law unilaterally decreed by president Kais Saied spurred outcry among women’s rights advocates in Tunisia. In protest of the new legislation, a feminist movement formed of nine associations staged a sit-in before the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE). As these activists voice demands for absolute parity between men and women in the public sphere, the president’s backwards approach to equality threatens to reverse women’s political gains.
Some 57 thousand sub-Saharan migrants are currently living in Tunisia, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). To make ends meet, many of them take on precarious, underpaid jobs as builders, servers and agricultural workers. This demographic of foreign workers has replaced a Tunisian workforce that has shown itself reluctant to such economic activities. In the meantime, Tunisian legislation has failed to address what is becoming a dire socio-economic dilemma, as the absence of clear policy leaves free rein to all sorts of abuses against migrant workers.
For weeks, refugees and asylum seekers demonstrated outside UNHCR headquarters in Tunis. Young men, women and children camped out in make-shift tents, giving voice to their anger and demanding dignity. And to be evacuated out of Tunisia. A crisis that reveals but the tip of the iceberg in the management of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers who disembark onto Tunisia’s shores.
Tunisia is home to an ever-growing migrant population. And yet many migrants remain in an irregular situation. In the absence of a complete legal framework for refugees and asylum seekers, access to health services for this heterogeneous community is not only inadequate, but in some cases even non-existent. For certain migrants, their inability to seek proper treatment is a disadvantage with potentially fatal consequences.
3.2% of Tunisia’s incarcerated population are women. Asma is one of them. In an interview with Nawaat, Asma opens up about the appalling conditions inside women’s prisons. For many inmates, violence, whether socio-economic or psychological, is a fact of their past and present. A study by Beity and Lawyers Without Borders sheds light on their experience in prison and beyond.
« The Omar Laâbidi case has been pushed back to center stage thanks to the « Learn to swim » campaign, and to the efforts of civil society and “Ultras” (groups of soccer team supporters). This has roused the anger of Tunisia’s security apparatus, inciting its recourse to intimidation », says one activist. In the midst of this highly charged atmosphere, police officers are responding through the blows of their batons.
Tunisia’s Interior Ministry is taking advantage of the freeze on parliament in the hopes of pushing forward legislation that would create a biometric national identity card. The authority tasked with the protection of personal data as well as national and international NGOs have voiced their concerns about the proposed draft law and risks associated with its adoption.
On the 10th anniversary of the revolution, Tunisia witnessed what has become a usual spike in the number of protests carried out across the country especially during January. What distinguished 2021 from the rest was the diversity of backgrounds and motivations that propelled demonstrations. Among hundreds of Tunisians detained, many were minors; there were illegal night raids, arbitrary arrests, investigative reports that failed to respect detainee’s most basic rights; the suspicious death of a man in his thirties following his arbitrary arrest; another young man was tortured, one of his testicals removed. Neither the perpetrators nor those in power were held accountable for these repressive practices.
Revelations made in early February by the Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi Defense Committee were nothing short of explosive. Certain magistrates, including the president of the High Judicial Council, have been accused of covering up the truth and collusion with Ennahdha.
It was with sealed lips that the Bouden government elaborated a draft law concerning the organization of associations. Recently leaked to several NGOs, the proposed legislation contains provisions which hint at why authorities might prefer to remain tight-lipped about the measure in question.
Over several days in late November 2012, police used birdshot against protesters in Siliana, injuring hundreds of people including demonstrators, journalists covering the demonstration, and bystanders, according to an Amnesty International report at the time. One investigative report by civil society put the number of injured at 178, and at least 20 people lost eyes or sustained severe damage to their eyes. Now, a decade later, these people are still calling on authorities to cover their healthcare costs, extend their social benefits, and hold the officials responsible for the use of birdshot accountable.
On Saturday, October 30, around 30 people in downtown Tunis protested the President’s new decree mandating vaccination passes for all public spaces. It’s one of several small protests that have occurred around the issue in both Tunis and other cities.
In recent years, there has been increasing tension around the use of haphazard landfills as residents nearby these toxic sites protest the serious short and long-term hazards they face.
In another world, Mohamed Gabsi would have studied technology and probably specialized in computer science. Instead, because of the limited access to study material accessible to disabled people like himself in his preferred field, he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters of Sousse. “I am a French graduate, technophile and blind,”the young man likes to introduce himself—both in everyday life and during his activities as a disability justice activist.
The assassinations of politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi in 2013 left many unanswered questions and suspicions. In both cases, authorities didn’t immediately explain who the suspected assassins were, and they never clearly detailed to the public the assassins’ potential motives, planning, resources, or organizational support.
On September 1, police violently dispersed a peaceful demonstration in downtown Tunis, punching, shoving, and using pepper spray against demonstrators as well as journalists who were there covering the event. Aside from some incidents in front of Parliament on July 26, Wednesday’s police repression was the first documented use of police violence against peaceful demonstrators since President Kais Saied suspended parliament and dismissed the government on July 25.
