TUNISIA: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS ARBITRARILY DETAINED

Your Excellency,

I write to you to express my grave concern over the prolonged arbitrary detention of human rights defenders – Sherifa Riahi, Yadh Bousselmi, and Mohamed Joo – from Terre d’Asile Tunisie, and Imen Ouardani – former deputy mayor of Sousse, since May 2024. The NGO is registered and operates transparently, providing essential assistance to vulnerable refugees and migrants in cooperation with local and national authorities, including the Sousse municipality.

Authorities investigated them together with three other Terre d’Asile staff for their work as well as 16 former municipality officials and employees for their collaboration with the NGO. The investigation, premised on the idea of a foreign-backed civil society conspiracy to “permanently settle” Sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia, violates their rights to freedom of association and expression, criminalizes legitimate collaboration between civil society and local authorities, and violates Tunisia’s international obligations towards refugees and migrants by hampering protection and assistance work.

Authorities have also hindered Sherifa Riahi’s children’s visits. International law and standards outline that pretrial detention must only be used when strictly necessary to prevent suspects from absconding, interfering with the investigation, or committing a serious crime.

I urge you to ensure that authorities immediately release Sherifa Riahi, Yadh Bousselmi, Mohamed Joo, and Imen Ouardani and drop all charges against them. Pending this, authorities must promptly reply to the former’s requests to meet with her children. I also call on your government to cease targeting human rights defenders solely for the exercise of their right to defend rights.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]