Tunisian authorities have sharply intensified pressure on civil society organisations, prosecuting activists, suspending associations and investigating NGO finances in a campaign that human rights groups say has all but extinguished the civic freedoms that emerged after the country's 2011 revolution. A 49-page report released this week by Human Rights Watch documented what it described as a systematic and escalating assault on local and international organisations, warning that at least 47 people connected to NGOs have been prosecuted, with at least 10 held in preventive detention beyond the 14-month maximum permitted under Tunisian law. At least 14 civil society workers have been convicted and sentenced to prison following trials in 2025 and 2026, including prominent human rights defender Saadia Mosbah, who received an eight-year sentence on financial crime charges in March.

The crackdown has been particularly severe in areas touching on migration — one of the country's most politically charged issues. Between May and December 2024, authorities arrested workers at organisations assisting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, as well as those working to combat racism. The arrests came in the wake of President Kais Saied's February 2023 statement describing the presence of sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia as a