Overview of Human Rights in Tunisia

In the political realm, recent elections in the Tunisian Republic were marred by inflated voter turnout rates. Meanwhile, the country has a poor record of human rights record. Most of the abuses committed are by the government or agents of the government. For the past decade governmental authorities have refused to give legal recognition to any truly independent human rights organization. Human rights activists are subject to illegal wiretapping and other forces of surveillance, travel bans, physical assaults, suspicious acts of vandalism against their property, and dismissal from their jobs. Arbitrary arrest and detainment also occur often. The Tunisian media remains largely under government control. While Tunisia's first private television station and second private radio station came into being recently, there is still no real freedom of speech or press. The government maintains influence over the content disseminated by all media in the nation.

Note: In light of the "war on terror," the government adopted the “Law in Support of International Efforts to Fight Terrorism and the Repression of Money Laundering.” The broad definition of terrorism written in the law allows the government to prosecute persons for a broad range of actions, including peaceful dissent against the government. Since April 2005, hundreds of young Tunisians have been arrested by the authorities. Those arrested have been accused of future enlistment into jihadist movements abroad, but  none were charged with committing or even plotting to commit violent acts (at the time of writing). Most of those who submitted confessions stated that the confessions were the result of torture and coercion while being interrogated.

Human Development Index (HDI) Rank:

87th out of 177

Note: Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite index that measures the level of well-being of nations in the world. It uses factors such as poverty, literacy, life-expectancy, education, gross domestic product, and purchasing power parity to assess the average achievements in each nation. It has been used in the United Nation’s Human Development Report since 1993.