On June 3rd, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (Euro-Med) hosted a conference entitled “Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls” to discuss the Tunisian Personal Status Code and Penal Code – both of which are long overdue for reform. Critical yet optimistic, the proposed goals for legal reform are found in a study entitled “Violences à L’égard des femmes: Les lois du genre” written by Sana Ben Achour, a law professor and former president of ATFD.
Members of the Coordination of Associations for Immigration and Tunisians Abroad (CAITE) gathered in Tunis last Thursday to articulate their demands for a representative body. The association has criticized the associated Draft Law 015/2015 concerning the creation of a National Council, which CAITE members “cannot accept in its present version.”
In the arid semi-desert governorate of Medenine, media attention was recently drawn to a small village called Gosbah. Inhabited by a small black community, the ‘Abid Ghbonton. Gosbah lies next to another village inhabited by the white Ghbonton; the two territories are separated by a small river.
Fighting terrorism and respecting human rights are two sides of the same coin, 46 national and international human rights organizations said today in an open letter addressed to all Tunisians and titled “No to Terrorism, Yes to Human Rights.”
While it contains a breadth of information and recommendations, the OECD report’s evident eagerness to highlight progress tends to overlook important shortcomings, while the time lapse between data collection (in 2014) and publication of Open Government in Tunisia (8 February 2016) has rendered certain facts and observations outdated.
For the past two weeks, some fifty women have assembled each day in front of the delegation of Jebiniana in hopes of a better life.
While citizens and local authorities in a few regions have undertaken negotiations for employment and development, the government has yet to respond to protesters’ demands with a comprehensive strategy or solution. Instead, a union of the National Guard is implicated in the diffusion of fabricated images portraying violent protests, and police forces have begun to arrest young activists accused of “disrupting public order.”
Today, Monday, January 25, a demonstration took place in Sidi Bouzid on the city’s main street. Organized by the Union of Unemployed Graduates (UDC), the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), and the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH), marchers headed to governorate headquarters where they demanded the governor’s presence.
Demonstrations have not ceased since Saturday, January 16 when Ridha Yahyaoui was electrocuted at the top of a utility pole in Kasserine. Yahyaoui’s death was the turning point in recent protests which have turned into clashes between protesters and security forces across the country. Less than a week later, the government has imposed a national curfew.
After five years of struggles to keep the country on track, civil society demands for “work, freedom, and dignity” have remained unchanged.
With under 48 hours left for parties to complete the negotiations, a new version of the draft agreement is expected this afternoon, but the inclusion or exclusion of explicit human rights or gender specific language remains open for debate.
In seamless consistency with the government’s response to the Bardo and Sousse attacks in March and June, official discourse, superficial security measures, and the actions of security forces since last Tuesday’s tragedy reflect the absence of a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy and have kept alive the notion that effective security requires the relinquishing of certain rights and liberties.
Following the publication of an ICTJ report on Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission, Impunity Watch has presented the initial findings of a collaborative research project on victim participation in the transitional justice process. Amidst observations, analyses, and recommendations that have been presented by national and international actors in the field, the study represents the “most rigorous effort” thus far to evaluate victims’ perceptions of and roles in the undertaking of transitional justice in Tunisia.
As civil society and political forces across the Mediterranean debate Europe’s Agenda on Migration, in Tunisia it is the absence of a comprehensive national strategy, cohesive immigration legislation and designated State institutions which is at the heart of migration discussions.
Abdelmajid Jdey was being held in preventative detention Sidi Bouzid when, on 13 May, the Ministry of the Interior announced his death; according to the statement, Jdey hung himself in his cell. In the weeks that have followed, civil society activists and organizations including Human Rights Watch and the Tunisian Organization Against Torture (OCTT) have contested the Ministry’s announcement. Notably, the victim had filed a complaint of torture to OCTT several days prior to his death.
Currently on the table for discussion in Parliament, Draft Law n°55/2014 concerning the right of access to information continues to make waves. Last week, Reporters without Borders confirmed concerns previously expressed by a number of civil society organizations including IWatch, Touensa, and the LTDH. Analysis.
Amidst the distilled information and tones of alarmism and pessimism that stifle quality discussions on terrorism in mainstream media, one finds the insight and information provided by members of civil society, activists, government officials active on social media platforms. Such a plurality of perspectives is important for fleshing out and expanding a discussion that is commonly portrayed as a two-sided debate between human rights advocates who demand the protection of civil liberties at the expense of effective security measures, and conservative political figures whose rhetoric of national security and unity in the face of terrorism is construed to harbor power and by extension repress fundamental rights.
Tunisia’s reformists have been given fresh hope after the country’s Justice Minister announced plans to reform the state’s controversial drug laws. Earlier this week Justice Minister Mohamed Saleh Bin Issa told journalists that the ministry would seek to revise the law 52 and approve the adoption of alternative sanctions.
