Five years after President Kais Saied invoked exceptional powers on 25 July 2021, HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement documents how a measure presented as a temporary response to political paralysis has hardened into a system of concentrated presidential rule. Covering developments from July 2021 through August 2026, this report traces the dismantling of constitutional and judicial checks, including the suspension and dissolution of parliament, the dissolution of the Supreme Judicial Council, the summary dismissal of 57 judges and prosecutors, and a 2022 Constitution that stripped away safeguards for the separation of powers and removed the constitutional obligation to implement transitional justice.
Drawing on legislation, court records, UN and African human rights mechanisms, and original case documentation, the report examines, section by section:
- How Decree-Law No. 54 and expanded criminal jurisdiction have turned public-interest speech, journalism, and legal advocacy into prosecutable offences, and how military courts have been used to try civilians for criticism of the state;
- How protest and trade union activity face growing surveillance, police intervention, and prosecution, even as peaceful assembly remains formally protected;
- How changes to electoral rules and mass arrests of opposition figures have narrowed political participation and removed judicial oversight of electoral disputes;
- How pretrial detention, fair-trial guarantees, and prison conditions have deteriorated in politically sensitive cases, including reports of denied medical care during the 2026 heatwave;
- How lawyers representing political detainees and human rights cases have themselves faced arrest, travel bans, and asset freezes;
- How migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers — particularly Black Tunisians and Black migrants — have faced a documented wave of racist violence, collective expulsion, and exclusion from essential services following President Saied’s February 2023 speech;
- How organisations providing humanitarian and legal aid have been prosecuted and suspended, closing off access to justice for people in vulnerable situations;
- How the Truth and Dignity Commission’s transitional justice process has collapsed — its final report largely unimplemented, its specialised criminal chambers issuing no judgments after seven years, and its own former officials now facing prosecution and lengthy prison sentences;
- How these harms fall unevenly on women defenders, Black Tunisian anti-racism activists, LGBTQI+ people, and other groups facing intersecting risks, and what barriers stand between them and an effective remedy.
The report closes with a set of concrete recommendations addressed separately to the Tunisian authorities and to international partners, including the European Union, the United Nations, and African human rights mechanisms, on reversing this five-year trajectory.
