Tunisia Targets Critics with Harsh Laws, HRW Reports

Human Rights Watch reports that Tunisia’s government has intensified a crackdown on dissent since 2021, using arbitrary detention, politicized prosecutions, and broad laws—including the Counterterrorism Law and Decree-Law 54—to target critics, journalists, lawyers, and opposition leaders. The report documents cases involving harsh detention conditions, erosion of judicial independence, and military court trials of civilians, and urges Tunisian authorities to release those held for peaceful expression and for international partners, especially the EU, to pressure the government to halt the repression.