Tunisia suspends one of Africa’s oldest rights group as crackdown widens

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Tunisia suspends one of Africa’s oldest rights group as crackdown widens

2026-04-25 15:55 Last Updated At：16:00

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Authorities in Tunisia have ordered a one-month suspension of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, one of the oldest rights groups in Africa and the Arab world and part of the National Dialogue Quartet awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, in the latest move raising concerns over a widening crackdown on civil society.

The league confirmed the suspension in a statement late Friday, warning that the decision amounted to “a serious and arbitrary violation of freedom of association” and “a direct assault” on one of Tunisia’s key democratic gains.

President Kais Saied has often cited foreign funding, which rights groups sometimes rely on, as a threat to Tunisia, using it to fuel a populist narrative and accuse his political opponents and social justice activists of being foreign agents and stirring unrest at home.

“This measure cannot be seen in isolation from a broader context in the country marked by increasing systematic pressure on civil society and independent voices,” the group said, adding that it would challenge what it called an unjust decision in court while continuing to defend victims of rights violations without discrimination.

The suspension follows a series of similar measures targeting rights groups in the North African country, where courts last year ordered multiple prominent NGOs to halt activities for a month, including organizations focused on migrants’ and women’s rights.

The decision comes as journalist Zied El-Heni was placed under 48-hour detention over a Facebook post, amid a broader pattern of arrests and legal pressure targeting critics.

Mohamed Yassine Jlassi, a former president of the Tunisian journalists union SNJT, told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a protest in Tunis on Friday that hundreds of people are being detained over speech-related charges, including social media posts.

“Repression has come to affect everyone. Journalism has become a crime, civil society work has become a crime, political opposition has been criminalized,” he said.

“People now increasingly find themselves facing arbitrary prosecutions without the bare minimum guarantees of a fair trial.”

Meanwhile, the investigative outlet Inkyfada faces a court hearing on May 11, as authorities pursue the dissolution of Al Khatt, the association that publishes it.

The group said in a statement that it disputes the legal basis of the case and says the claims cited by the government have not been examined by Tunisian courts since 2024.

These developments add to growing concerns among rights advocates over restrictions on independent media, civil society and any dissenting voices under Saied, who has consolidated power since 2021 and has increasingly targeted groups he repeatedly accuses of receiving foreign funding to stir unrest and destabilize Tunisia’s national interests.

Local elections in the West Bank and part of Gaza could test public trust

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — For the first time in two decades, Palestinians in battle-scarred Gaza are voting in local elections Saturday.

And in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, voters are casting ballots for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Turnout may reflect the level of public trust in a broader system led by aging leaders in the West Bank and as Gaza prepares for an anticipated transition from Hamas rule.

The vote in the West Bank will determine the makeup of the local councils overseeing water, roads and electricity. The vote in a single city in Gaza, on the other hand, is largely symbolic, with officials calling it a “pilot.”

Though it has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006, the Palestinian Authority has promoted the local races following reforms it enacted last year after demands from international backers.

Under the slogan “We Stay,” the Ramallah-based Central Election Commission has campaigned to encourage participation among the nearly 70,000 voters eligible in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah and 1 million in the West Bank.

Voting "reflects the will if the Palestinian people to stay on their land and develop their country," its spokesperson Fareed Taamallah said.

Polls opened early Saturday morning with a steady stream of voters in the West Bank. In the village of Deir Ibzi, near Ramallah, some parents brought their children to watch as election workers helped voters locate their names and voter IDs. While voting, each voter dips their finger in blue ink to show they have voted and avoid fraud.

With much of Gaza decimated by more than two years of war, the commission chose to hold its first vote in Deir al-Balah, which has been damaged by airstrikes but was one of the few areas spared an Israeli ground invasion. It had to improvise because it was unable to conduct traditional voter registration.

“The main idea is to link the West Bank and Gaza politically as one system,” Taamallah said. Palestinians see uniting the two under one government as integral to any path to future statehood.

The commission has not coordinated directly with either Israel or Hamas ahead of the Deir al-Balah vote and has not been able to send materials like ballot paper, ballot boxes or ink into Gaza, he added. COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian affairs in Gaza, did not respond to questions about whether it would allow election materials in.

Though Palestinian voter turnout has gradually decreased, it has been relatively high in past local elections by regional standards, according to commission figures, averaging between 50% and 60%. By comparison, turnout in recent local elections in Lebanon and Tunisia was under 40% and 12%, respectively.

Ninety-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree last year overhauling the electoral system in line with some demands of Western donors. The reforms allow voting for individuals rather than slates, lowered the eligibility age to run and raised quotas for women candidates.

In January, another Abbas decree required candidates to accept the program of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the group that leads the Palestinian Authority. The program calls for the recognition of Israel and renouncing armed struggle, effectively sidelining Hamas and other factions.

Slates in major cities are dominated by Fatah, the faction that leads the Palestinian Authority, and independents, some with ties to other factions. However, it’s the first time in six local elections that no other faction has officially put forward its own slate — an absence that analysts say reflects political disillusionment under Abbas and the authority’s aging leadership.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the authority exercises limited autonomy, and local councils oversee services from trash collection to building permits. Votes will be held in villages in what's known as “Area C” under Israeli military control as well as in municipalities that have been occupied by Israel's military since it launched a ground invasion in the northern West Bank last year.

Campaign posters have been plastered across cities, though many — including Ramallah and Nablus — will not hold elections because too few candidates or slates registered.

The Palestinian Authority’s power has withered amid years without peace negotiations with Israel and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. But it sees local elections as a low-risk way to demonstrate progress on reforms, said Aref Jaffal, director of the al-Marsad Arab World Democracy and Electoral Monitor.

“The PA wants to show it is on the right track on political, financial and administrative reforms, and is using local elections as a symbol of that,” he said. “With the weak legitimacy of the national government, it is seeking to bolster legitimacy through local elections.”

With the authority having little recourse to address hundreds of new military gates and settler outposts constricting movement in the West Bank, he said many councils have taken on greater importance, overseeing local health centers, schools and public services that residents once accessed elsewhere.

Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and violently seized control of Gaza from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority a year later. It did not put forth candidates for Saturday, but polling from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows it remains the most popular Palestinian faction in both Gaza and the West Bank.

Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N. deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, called the elections “an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights during an exceptionally challenging period.”

Other international actors, however, have been largely silent on the Gaza vote, with memories still fresh of past elections fueling conflict and other avenues for governance in limbo.

Hamas controls the half of Gaza that Israeli forces withdrew from last year, including Deir al-Balah, but the coastal enclave is preparing to transition to a new governance structure under U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.

The plan established a Board of Peace made up of international envoys and a committee of unelected Palestinian experts supposed to operate under it. Progress toward further phases, including disarming Hamas, reconstruction and a transfer of power, is stalled.

Associated Press writer Jalal Bwaitel contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.