HuMENA condemns the decision by the Tunisian authorities, issued on 5 May 2026, to suspend the activities of Avocats Sans Frontières for one month. The measure raises serious concerns for freedom of association and the right to access justice, particularly as the organization stated that it received the decision without being provided with the legal grounds on which it was based, and without any official clarification allowing an assessment of whether the required procedural safeguards were respected.
This cannot be treated as a limited administrative measure. Avocats Sans Frontières works to strengthen the rule of law and expand access to justice by supporting individuals and groups who cannot afford legal costs or obtain independent legal assistance. Suspending its activities therefore affects not only a human rights organization, but also people who rely on free or low-cost legal services to defend their rights and seek redress for violations.
The impact is already being felt by local organizations and initiatives that depend on legal partnerships to support people with no real alternative route to independent legal representation or safe legal support. CALAM Association has stated that the suspension of its partner, Avocats Sans Frontières, will affect its ability to provide legal assistance to women survivors of violence. This demonstrates that the harm does not stop at disrupting the work of an international organization. It extends to protection and redress pathways relied upon by women survivors of violence and people who cannot afford legal costs.
HuMENA views the suspension of Avocats Sans Frontières as part of a broader pattern of escalating restrictions on civil society in Tunisia. In recent months, successive measures have affected independent associations and human rights organizations, including the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, and the Tunisian League for Human Rights. These developments have occurred alongside measures and investigations related to foreign funding, as well as decisions affecting the activities or resources of some associations. Taken together, they raise serious concerns that exceptional measures, which should remain subject to strict legal safeguards, are becoming a repeated practice through which the boundaries of civic space are gradually redrawn.
HuMENA does not object to associations being subject to clear and transparent rules on funding and disclosure. However, financial and administrative oversight must not become a tool to criminalize human rights work or disrupt essential services for victims and people unable to access justice. Any alleged violation should be addressed through clear, reasoned, and proportionate legal procedures, not through vague decisions or smear campaigns that undermine public trust in civil society and directly harm those who rely on its services.
HuMENA recalls that Tunisia is bound, under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to protect freedom of association and guarantee the right to a fair trial, access to justice, and effective remedies. Any restriction on the work of associations must be prescribed by law, pursue a legitimate aim, and be necessary and proportionate.
Suspending an organization’s activities without sufficient clarification, in a context of increasing pressure on civil society actors, raises serious concerns about the use of administrative, financial, and judicial tools to shrink civic space and exhaust organizations that play essential roles in protection, accountability, and access to justice. When human rights organizations and legal support institutions are forced to defend the legitimacy of their existence, funding sources, and internal procedures instead of carrying out their core work, society’s ability to seek accountability, obtain redress, and organize is gradually weakened.
Accordingly, HuMENA calls on the Tunisian authorities to:
- Disclose the legal and procedural basis for the suspension of Avocats Sans Frontières, provide the organization with access to the full reasoning and documents related to the decision, and guarantee its right to an effective appeal before an independent and impartial body.
- Refrain from extending the suspension, expanding its scope, or taking additional measures against the organization without a publicly disclosed and reasoned legal basis.
- Ensure that the suspension does not disrupt independent legal assistance services, particularly for women survivors of violence and people who cannot afford legal costs.
- Protect local partner organizations and initiatives from any punitive or restrictive consequences resulting from their cooperation with independent human rights organizations.
- Stop using financial and administrative oversight, or rhetoric related to foreign funding, to undermine the legitimacy of independent human rights work or cast civil society actors as suspect outside the framework of established facts and clear legal procedures.
- Guarantee a safe and independent environment for civil society organizations, lawyers, and human rights defenders, in line with Tunisia’s obligations to protect freedom of association and the right to access justice.
HuMENA renews its solidarity with Avocats Sans Frontières and all independent civil society actors in Tunisia. Protecting civic space is not an administrative matter subject to arbitrary restriction. It is a necessary condition for access to justice, protection of victims and survivors, and accountability for violations.
