Tunisia’s civil society sector is facing growing pressure as authorities intensify their crackdown on activists, non-governmental organisations and human rights workers, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.
In its 49-page report released on Wednesday, the rights organisation said the authorities had increasingly targeted local and international civil society groups through arrests, prolonged preventive detention, criminal and financial investigations, mass suspensions and threats of dissolution.
Human Rights Watch said at least 47 people connected to non-governmental organisations had been prosecuted, while at least 10 others were held in preventive detention for more than 14 months, exceeding the maximum period permitted under Tunisian law.
Following trials held in 2025 and 2026, at least 14 people linked to civil society organisations were convicted and sentenced to prison, the report said.
Among those convicted was prominent human rights defender Saadia Mosbah, who received an eight-year prison sentence and a heavy fine on financial crime charges in March.
The report also noted that five employees of organisations assisting asylum seekers had been convicted on charges linked to their humanitarian work. Their organisations have since ceased operations.
The crackdown has particularly affected groups working on politically sensitive issues, including migration, racism and discrimination. Between May and December 2024, authorities arrested several workers from organisations assisting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, Human Rights Watch said.
The arrests came amid heightened tensions over the treatment of sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia.
In February 2023, President Kais Saied claimed that the presence of sub-Saharan refugees and migrants was part of a “criminal plan” to alter Tunisia’s demographic composition, describing it as a form of occupation.
Human Rights Watch said authorities had relied on laws criminalising assistance to foreigners with irregular immigration status, as well as the country’s counterterrorism and money-laundering legislation, to bring what it described as abusive charges against human rights defenders and NGO workers.
The report further noted that financial investigations had created significant administrative and operational challenges for several associations.
At least two organisations reportedly had their bank accounts frozen, while some private banks imposed restrictions on foreign funding and other financial transactions.
Human Rights Watch warned that the widespread use of criminal and financial investigations raised serious concerns that Tunisian authorities were using such measures to intimidate and weaken civil society, further shrinking the civic space that emerged following the country’s 2011 revolution
