EU report details severe human rights and rule of law deterioration in Tunisia during 2025
The European Union's 2025 Human Rights and Democracy in the World report, published on August 28, 2026, indicates a continued deterioration of human rights and the rule of law in Tunisia. The report highlights repression of civic space, increased restrictions on freedoms of expression, association, and assembly, and a lack of fair trial guarantees. It also notes arbitrary detentions, administrative harassment, and repression targeting civil society and independent media. Journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, opposition members, and civil society actors have faced arrests and prosecutions. The EU report specifically mentions the use of laws to prosecute individuals for spreading "false information" online, leading to arrests and convictions of journalists and activists in 2025. Severe sentences, including prison terms, have been handed down to opponents, journalists, and activists for peaceful criticism of the government. The report states that anti-terrorism laws are frequently used to silence dissenting voices, leading to "systematic judicial abuses" and violations of fair trial rights. The independence of the judiciary is also questioned, with concerns about judicial guarantees. Tunisia's press freedom ranking dropped by eleven places in 2025 to 129th out of 180 countries, according to Reporters Without Borders. The National Access to Information Authority, an independent body, was closed in August 2025. More than twenty civil society organizations were suspended in