Escalating Crackdown on Civil Society and NGOs Threatens Post-Revolutionary Freedoms in Tunisia

Tunisian authorities have sharply intensified pressure on civil society, prosecuting activists and NGO workers, investigating groups’ finances, and suspending dozens of associations in a campaign that Human Rights Watch says has severely narrowed the civic space that emerged after the 2011 revolution.

In a 49-page report released on Wednesday, the rights group documented what it described as escalating repression of local and international civil society organisations, their workers, and affiliates through arrests, lengthy preventive detention, criminal and financial investigations, mass suspensions, and threats of dissolution. Human Rights Watch said authorities have prosecuted at least 47 people connected to nongovernmental organisations and held at least 10 people in preventive detention for longer than 14 months, exceeding the maximum period permitted under Tunisian law.

After trials in 2025 and 2026, at least 14 people connected to civil society have been convicted and sentenced to prison, the rights group said. Among them is prominent human rights defender Saadia Mosbah, who was sentenced to eight years in prison and a heavy fine on financial crime charges on March 19, according to the report. Five employees of organisations assisting asylum seekers have also been convicted on charges linked to their work and the mandates of their legally registered associations, Human Rights Watch said, and the organisations have since ceased their activities.

The crackdown has extended beyond individual activists to organisations working on some of the country’s most politically sensitive issues, particularly migration. From May to December 2024, authorities arrested several workers at groups providing assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, as well as people working to combat racism and discrimination. The arrests occurred when tensions were heightened over the treatment of sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia, following comments in February 2023 by President Kais Saied, who described the presence of sub-Saharan refugees and migrants as part of a criminal plan to change Tunisia’s demographic composition.

Authorities have also targeted organisations collectively, using Decree-Law 2011-88 on associations to suspend groups. Human Rights Watch identified at least 20 suspended civil society associations, noting that groups like Al Khatt, which publishes the independent online magazine Inkyfada, and the antiracism organisation Mnemty are currently facing dissolution proceedings. Activists such as Rabie Kacem of the Nafas civic collective and photojournalist Noureddine Ahmed reported that the climate of fear has severely restricted public speech, journalistic freedom, and the ability to operate openly.

Wissem Sghaier, spokesperson for the Al-Jomhouri Party, noted that the prosecutions are part of a broader crisis involving the balance of powers and freedom of expression under the administration of President Kais Saied, who began ruling by decree after taking sweeping political measures in July 2021. Human Rights Watch has urged Tunisian authorities to end abusive investigations, release arbitrarily detained rights defenders, and called on the international community to take urgent action to preserve remaining civic spaces in the country.