The Civil Collective for Individual Freedoms, made up of a number of organisations, said the state must abide by its national and international human rights commitments.
At a press conference to present its annual report on individual freedoms in Tunisia, the collective called to implement the recommendations emanating from constitutional bodies.
Human rights violations recorded between March 2020 and March 2021 are «painful and undermine Tunisia’s image and its democratic process,» said President of the collective Wahid Ferchichi.
He added that the State must take into account the recommendations of the Truth and Dignity Commission, the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture and the National Commission for the Protection of Personal Data, on dropping Article 230 of the Penal Code and the discriminatory and freedom-destroying provisions it contains.
Most violations recorded are deemed as unconstitutional acts of torture, he added.
He questioned the fate of the draft code on individual liberties presented on October 18, 2018 by a group of MPs and withdrawn by the current Parliament, as well as the draft law on equal inheritance.
Ferchichi condemned the «war» on individual freedoms in Tunisia as confirmed by the Collective’s previous reports, adding the 2019 electoral campaign showed that several candidates do not believe in individual freedoms.
The Presidency of the Republic must assume its responsibility to enforce the provisions of the constitution and defend individual freedoms and equality between citizens.
For her part, representative of the Tawhida Ben Cheikh group Hedia Belhaj spoke about the violation of women’s sexual and reproductive rights.
She noted that women are the group most exposed to violations in times of crisis and that this has worsened since 2011.
Member of the Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality «DAMJ» Seif Ayadi recalled the wave of arbitrary arrests targeting homosexuals and transsexuals who took to the streets because of the social situation.
The hate speech targeting women, sexual minorities, migrants and asylum seekers has increased with the rise of populism in Tunisia (2019-2020), he added.
Likewise, a representative of the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) raised the issue of violating the right to assemble and demonstrate.
She denounced the repression of peaceful demonstrations of football fans on January 9, 2021 and the arrest of 293 people, most of them minors, without any order from the public prosecutor or the presence of lawyers.
The wave of arrests was spread out from January to early April, she noted, stressing that the League had received nearly 2000 complaints about arrests in the regions and popular neighbourhoods.
Moreover, Oussama Bouajila of the World Organisation against Torture noted that the creation of the Coalition in 2016 was a response to the deteriorating state of freedoms in Tunisia.
New threats were recorded in 2020 and 2021 in relation to police abuses, impunity and violation of the right of access to information, he regretted.
The record of March 2020/March 2021 is depressing, he added, pointing to suspicious death cases recorded and people subjected to torture in detention centres. He considered 2020/2021 the year of police violence and impunity.
It is no longer possible to speak of isolated cases, he indicated, as such practices have continued and worsened in recent years. He criticised the double standards of justice that have undermined citizen’s trust in the state and its institutions.
The Civil Collective for Individual Liberties, created on January 19, 2016, brings together more than 40 associations and publishes an annual report on freedoms in Tunisia.
Source: TAP News Agency