46 Groups, Celebrities, Cartoonists Press for Rights-Respecting Approach
Rights 226
How open is Tunisia to Open Government reforms?
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(in 2014) and publication of Open Government in Tunisia (8 February 2016) has rendered certain facts and observations outdated.
Women at the forefront of social movements in Jebiniana
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.
Repression of social movements: on the streets, in the media
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.”
Peaceful protests continue throughout the country
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.
After Kasserine, protests break out in 16 governorates
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.
In Tunis, demonstrators are still chanting the slogans of the revolution
After five years of struggles to keep the country on track, civil society demands for “work, freedom, and dignity” have remained unchanged.
COP21 Countdown: Seeking solutions through the human right prism met with opposition by certain countries
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.
More than security, human rights are threatened in Tunisia
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.
Transitional Justice in Tunisia: fragmentation and competition
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.
Europe unveils Agenda on Migration, Tunisia slow to realize one of its own
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.
Torture in Tunisia: Abdelmajid Jdey, Another Death in Police Custody
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.
Draft Law Concerning the Right of Access to Information: three steps forward, two steps back
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.
Counterterrorism Law: looking beyond laxity vs. despotism, security vs. human rights
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.
Cannabis: The latest burning issue for Tunisia’s new lawmakers
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.
Investigation: In Kasserine, Water Woes Drain Locals
After Kairouan in the center of the country and Sejnane in the north, we set out for Kasserine, where the rate of access to potable water for the majority of delegations throughout the governorate is less than the national average, a fact which exacerbates the plight of vulnerable and poor segments of the population with limited access to potable water at best, and nothing more than contaminated drinking water at worst.
In Sers, Farm workers struggle against the investors’ abuses
Formerly, it was called the attic of Rome. Nowadays, Tunisia does not manage any more to fill its needs into agri-food sector. The sector suffers, since decades, from a bad management which weakens it. The repercussions of corruption, nepotism and the non-planned privatization carried by the old regime, largely, contributed to this crisis. It is the case of the farms, from Sers to Kef, where farmers have decided to open the files of corruption, reform the sector and create agricultural complexes, like there is, everywhere, in the country.
South to North and the Sea in Between: Politics of Migration in the Mediterannean
At the beginning of the month, Journalist Farhat Othman criticized the Italian Interior Minister’s visit to Tunisia, observing that an offering of patrol boats, in the guise of support against terrorism and contraband, could only be intended for support against clandestine immigration since it consists of «patrol vessels mandanted by the cooperation agreement linking Tunisia and Italy since 2011 after the massive wave of Tunisians to Italy.» As if to provide a caricature of European politicans obsessed by preserving EU security, Nicolas Sarkozy addressed a cheering crowd of supporters in Nice earlier this week, calling for the «refounding» of the Schengen Area and «a real immigration policy to put an end to social tourism in our country.»
