Tunisian authorities on Friday ordered a one-month suspension of activities by the Human Rights League (LTDH), according to a statement from the group, \u200bwhich was among the civil society quartet that won the Nobel \u200cPeace Prize in 2015.<\/p>\n
No comment was immediately available on the matter from the government.<\/p>\n
The league said the move was part of a “wider pattern of increasingly systematic curbs on civil \u200bsociety and on free and independent voices”.<\/p>\n
In October, Tunisia also suspended \u200bseveral prominent groups, including the Democratic Women and the Economic and Social \u2060Rights Forum, while rights organisations have criticized what they say is an \u200bunprecedented crackdown targeting Non-Governmental Organisation LTDH, an outspoken critic of Tunisia President\u00a0 Kais Saied, has repeatedly warned that Tunisia has been sliding toward authoritarian rule since Saied suspended parliament in 2021 and later began \u200bruling by decree.<\/p>\n
Saied has said he will not be a dictator and \u200bthat freedoms are guaranteed in Tunisia, but that no one is above the law, regardless \u200cof \u2060their name or position.<\/p>\n
In recent months, LTDH has been barred from visiting prisons to inspect detainees’ conditions in several cities.<\/p>\n
Founded in 1976, the league is widely seen as a cornerstone of human rights advocacy in Tunisia and is \u200bone of the oldest \u200bsuch groups in \u2060the Arab world and Africa.<\/p>\n
It was among four Tunisian civil society groups that were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize \u200bas part of the National Dialogue Quartet in 2015 \u200bfor their \u2060role in supporting the country’s democratic transition.<\/p>\n
Tunisia, once hailed as the only democratic success story to emerge from the Arab Spring 15 years ago, now faces growing \u2060criticism \u200bfrom international rights groups over restrictions on opponents, \u200bmedia and civil society.<\/p>\n
Prominent Tunisian reporter Zied Heni was detained on Friday after writing an article criticising \u200bthe judiciary, according to his lawyer.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16130,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-32966","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Prominent Tunisian reporter Zied Heni was detained on Friday after writing an article criticising \u200bthe judiciary.","published_date":"","news_description":"Prominent Tunisian reporter Zied Heni was detained on Friday after writing an article criticising \u200bthe judiciary.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32967,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32966\/revisions\/32967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}