Tunisia suspends second civic rights group within days
The Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES) said on Monday authorities had suspended its activities for a month, the second NGO hit by such a measure in the space of a few days.
"The FTDES this evening received an official letter informing it of the suspension of its activities for a month, under a procedure already applied to other organizations," the rights group said in a statement.
Without naming the reasons authorities laid out in the letter, the body added that it had been subject to "a series of financial and tax audits since April".
It insisted that it had "conformed to all legal and administrative procedures as usual".
Tunis had previously issued a similar suspension against the Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), its chief told AFP Friday.
Local media reported in recent days that prosecutors had launched an investigation into foreign funding received by various civil society organizations.
The Tunisian website Business News reported 47 associations had been dissolved as a result of the investigation and authorities had frozen the assets of 36 others.
The FTDES said its suspension was "a new incident in the restriction of independent civic space and a flagrant attempt to subjugate free voices who have refused to swear allegiance (to the government) and remained true to the values of justice and dignity".
Since President Kais Saied seized power in a 2021 coup, Tunisian and foreign NGOs have denounced a regression in rights and freedoms in the country.
The FTDES said it would comply with Monday's "arbitrary and unjust" decision.
But it reiterated its "unwavering support to all social, civic and human rights struggles in our country".
The FTDES was created following Tunisia's 2011 revolution.
It gathers data and occasionally organizes demonstrations on issues like human trafficking of migrants from Tunisia and sub-Saharan Africa, rights of female farm workers and environmental pollution.
The previously suspended feminist ATFD, founded in 1989, has been at the forefront of the struggle for democracy in Tunisia and against the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown in 2011 by a popular uprising.
Source: Agence France Presse
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