TUNIS, Oct 5, 2012 (AFP)
TUNIS, Oct 5, 2012 (AFP)
A report by the UN special rapporteur for human rights published Friday on the situation in Tunisia highlighted concerns about violence against activists, including torture in detention.
Margaret Sekaggya and her colleague with the African commission on human rights, Reine Alapini-Gansou, noted progress since the era of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia’s former dictator ousted in a mass uprising last year.
But in their preliminary report, which follows a week-long visit, they also denounced the ongoing violence to which activists are exposed in the North African nation.
“We are concerned that women human rights defenders, journalists, artists, academics, trade unionists and members of NGOs have faced physical attacks, murder attempts, harassment and threats since the revolution,” the report said.
It noted the perpetrators were “in many cases” Salafists, the radical Islamists implicated in numerous acts of violence since the uprising, which have been met with a “lack of responsiveness from the police.”
Instead, the rights experts said they were “very concerned” about cases of arbitrary arrests and excessive use of force during protests, and highlighted allegations about the torture of demonstrators being held in detention.
The report also criticises the lack of transparency in the work of the National Constituent Assembly, which is tasked with drafting the new constitution.
It called on the government to remove the criminalisation of “attacks on the sacred” from the constitution, saying the text does not clearly define what is meant by the sacred, leaving ample opportunity for its arbitrary interpretation.
The report also demands that Tunisia’s Islamist-led government pushes ahead with reforms of the media sector, amid accusations the authorities are seeking to control public media groups, notably by appointing loyal directors.
