Tunisia

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8. Tunisia GENERAL, POLITICAL AND LEGAL OVERVIEW Three years after the 2011 revolution that overthrew former Tunisian President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia is yet to bring justice to the victims and perpetrators of the grave human rights violations under his rule. The only exceptions are cases of murder by security officers during the brutal crackdown on the people when mass protests first broke out. Under Ben Ali’s rule, rampant human rights violations included arbitrary arrests, torture, unfair trials and inhumane treatment of prisoners occurred.

Tunisia promulgated a new constitution on 26th January 2014. Legal and human rights activists praised the constitution as being one of the few in the region to protect religious and individual freedoms. The constitution guarantees the basic rights and freedoms of Tunisians by creating a separation and balance between the three branches of power. Despite the political bickering that accompanied drafting the new constitution, members of the Constituent Assembly succeeded in finalising it for adoption. The constitution, which consists of 146 chapters divided

into 10 parts, is considered to be lengthy and includes details that could have been incorporated into later laws. Constitutional and legal experts praised the constitution for its protection of freedoms. Unlike the 1959 Constitution, the new draft includes a chapter dedicated to freedoms, the establishment of a constitutional court, legal commissions and an independent elections commission.

The new laws also legislate for the establishment of The Truth and Dignity Commission, which is to be concerned with the ‘transitional justice dossier.’

The Constituent Assembly approved the list of the commission members on 19th May 2014. The Commission, tasked with investigating all violations since June 1955, includes legal experts who have defended human rights before the Tunisian revolution. On 2nd June, the Constituent Assembly ratified a basic law that refers the cases of those killed and injured in the revolution to specialised agencies as part of the transitional justice efforts. On the same day, it passed a law granting amnesty to all acts committed in an endeavour to support the revolution from 17th December 2010 to 28th February 2011.

On 25th June 2014, the Constituent Assembly agreed to hold the first parliamentary elections, which took place on 26th October 2014.

Tunisia officially withdrew all its reservations about the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

71 (CEDAW) as a first step towards guaranteeing women equal rights.

The Tunisian reservations concerned treaty requirements to provide equality to women in family matters.

These include women’s ability to pass on their nationality to their children, their rights and responsibilities in marriage and divorce, matters relating to children and guardianship, personal rights for husbands and wives with regard to family name and occupation and affirming the same rights for both spouses in ownership of property. CEDAW provides for full equality for women in all such matters.

However, Tunisia maintained a general declaration stating that the country “shall not take any organisational or legislative decision in conformity with the requirements of this Convention where such a decision would conflict with the provisions of Chapter I of the Tunisian Constitution.” Chapter I of the constitution states that the religion of the country is Islam.

Despite the legal and legislative progress Tunisia made in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution and the subsequent promises to introduce more reforms, human rights activists have admitted that some repressive policies have made a comeback such as torture, attacks on journalists and reporters and the repression of freedoms. They attribute these violations to the slow pace of reforms and the resistance to the new constitution.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS The right to freedom, fair trial and treatment •

Arbitrary arrests

Anti-terrorism security measures have led to many human rights violations. Many religious establishments and homes are arbitrarily raided. On 4th April 2014, security forces raided the al-Imam Society offices in Kairouan and arrested 12 young men before releasing them on the same day. The men suffered verbal abuse and no reason was given for their arrest.

The vast majority of arbitrary raids, whilst being illegal, reveal little, if any, information. In addition to this, the courts exonerate most arrestees.

In many cases, innocent people are harmed and even killed. In one such tragic example, a woman was shot by police officers that fired at her front door as she approached to open it.

They were carrying out a raid in search of her husband who was arrested but later proved to have no link to any terrorist acts.

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Torture and physical and psychological abuse

Human rights activists have observed that torture and human rights abuses were rampant in detention centres. Cases include the following:

72 1. Imad Degej from al-Karm in north Tunisia was brutally assaulted following his arrest on 26th February 2014. Police officers punched and kicked him as they dragged him across the floor of a coffee shop.

2. An unnamed restaurant owner was blackmailed by a police officer and when he refused to pay, the officer threatened to kill him.

3. On 28th February, an officer who was on patrol stopped a man and asked him for his papers. He then began to physically assault him. The unnamed victim, who suffered from heart problems and recently had surgery, fell unconscious.

4. On 1st March, an unnamed employee at the local theatre in Sfax was beaten up by a police officer in civilian clothes after he refused to admit entry to the police officer without a ticket.

5. On 11th June, a fight broke out between three men and police officers at a restaurant in the Nabel province.

The police officers requested backup from the National Guard who came and blocked the roads before assaulting everyone who happened to be in the vicinity. When a police unit arrived at the scene to find out what was going on, members of the National Guard refused to cooperate and started to assault the three civilian men, who later went on an open-ended hunger strike to protest this abuse.

6. Nidal Bilqasem was tortured in Baboosha after being detained on 14th August on charges of selling alcohol illegally. He appeared before the public prosecutor on 18th August bearing telltale signs of torture. The gravity of his injuries necessitated hospitalisation. His brother Waleed Bilqasem, who was held at the same police station, verified that Nidal was beaten up by police officers on 16th August. •

Acting with impunity

The vast majority of perpetrators are not brought to justice. For example, on 12th April 2014, the Criminal Circuit at the Military Appeals Court issued a number of decisions that many described as unfair. The cases were against officers and officials accused of killing an injuring many Tunisians during the revolution of 2011.

Social and economic rights The period covered by this report witnessed many calls for more social and cultural rights. Former political prisoners decided to stage a protest outside the offices of the Higher Commission for Human Rights on 5th March 2014 to demand their cases be internationalised and their rights be restored.

The Secretary-General of the Tunisian Students Union, Wael Nowwar, went on an open-ended hunger strike

73 in April 2014 to demand more rights for students.

The right to freedoms of the press and expression •

Press

Tunisian press freedoms were sharply curtailed during Ben Ali’s autocratic presidency that tolerated no dissent. The situation shifted dramatically following the 2011 revolution with many restrictions on press freedoms being lifted. However, the slow pace of reforms meant that security forces remained more or less intact along with some of the old methods of repression.

Cases include the following: 1. On 28th January 2014, security forces attacked a group of journalists covering a protest outside the cabinet building in al-Qasba. They also tried to confiscate their equipment. The Minister of Interior later apologised for the incident and promised to launch an investigation into what happened.

2. On 28th February, a police officer assaulted Wael al-Ifi, a journalist at a Hannibal satellite channel. Al-Ifi was covering the seizing of contraband.

3. Nabeel Wazdo, a reporter for alShorouk newspaper, was assaulted by police officers on 11th July as he was covering a local demonstration held to protest a new rubbish tip that had just be opened in the area. Wazdo’s camera

was destroyed in the attack.

4. The Crisis Centre, tasked with monitoring the security situation in the country, issued a decision on 19th July to close down a number of unlicensed radio and television stations over allegations of inciting violence and jihad. The headquarters of al-Noor w alQuran radio was closed down and four of its employees were interrogated.

5. Human rights worker and blogger Lina Bin Mahni was assaulted by police officers while she was walking with her family and a police guard who had been appointed months earlier after she received several death threats.

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Assembly

Security forces banned the Freedom and Justice Organisation from holding an event on 21st May 2014. The proposed lecture was going to discuss the arbitrary raids on homes and arrests of locals over terrorist allegations. On 21st February, a number of lawyers protesting peacefully outside a court were assaulted and attacked with tear gas. The protest was held to denounce a decision to arrest another lawyer, Fatima al-Majiry.

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Institutions

On 14th January 2014, several members of the Tunisia Guard detained human rights worker Hathiam Sha’ban who worked for the Freedom and Justice Organisation. Sha’ban was

74 harassed and searched. In July, the Tunisian Government decided to halt the activities of more than 150 organisations and societies all over Tunisia. The Prime Minister Mehdi Juma’ also announced that authorities would close down any radio or television station that broadcast any material that incites hatred. The same applied to mosques and societies with suspected links to terrorism.

The right to life and security •

Extrajudicial killings

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), on 23rd August 2013, two young women were shot dead by police officers in the city of Kassarine. A third woman was injured in the incident.

An Interior Ministry statement that day said police at a roadblock opened fire when the car sped towards them, although they signalled it to stop and fired warning shots. But surviving passengers told HRW that police opened fire without identifying themselves as police or giving any warning.

Sondous Dalhoumi said she was driving slowly due to pot-holes in the road, but quickened when men in black emerged from the side of the road. “It was clear that we were girls,” she said.

“We were singing. I have long hair and my sister was next to me. The car was full of girls.” Had she known the men were police, Sondous claimed she would

have stopped the car immediately. Her sister, Ahlem Dalhoumi, and her cousin, Ons Dalhoumi, had been shot fatally in the head whilst her cousin, Yasmine Soula, was left wounded.

On 17th September 2014, 26-year old Rida al-Madioni was shot dead by a police patrol. A Ministry of Interior statement claimed he was killed by a stray bullet after refusing to obey police orders to stop. Rida’s family insisted that his death was not an accident and demanded the Government launch an investigation into the incident. On 8th May 2014, Gilani al-Dabbosi was released from a two and a half year prison stint without trial or charge. He died a few hours after his release due to the severe deterioration of his health condition and neglect whilst in prison.