Reports

You Say You Want a Lawyer?

Tunisia’s New Law on Detention, on Paper and in Practice

This report examines the actual impact of the law granting detainees the right to a lawyer as soon as they are taken into custody. Every year, the police arrest thousands of people across Tunisia. They spend up to four days in police custody, a crucial period for building the criminal case against them, before they first see a judge. During this time, they are vulnerable to mistreatment. 

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  • “All this for a Joint”

    Tunisia’s Repressive Drug Law and a Roadmap for Its Reform

    This report documents the human rights abuses and social toll that stem from enforcement of the country’s draconian drug law, which sends thousands of Tunisians to prison each year merely for consuming or possessing small quantities of cannabis for personal use. 

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  • Flawed Accountability

    Shortcomings of Tunisia’s Trials for Killings during the Uprising

    This 52-page report analyzes Tunisia’s efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the use of excessive force by police between December 17, 2010, and January 14, 2011, when Ben Ali relinquished power and fled Tunisia. During that period, 132 protesters were killed and hundreds more were injured.

  • Cracks in the System

    Conditions of Pre-charge Detainees in Tunisia

    The 65-page report is the first public assessment of conditions in Tunisia’s pretrial detention centers, which hold people from the time of arrest to the appearance before a judge. Human Rights Watch documented incidents in which law enforcement agents mistreated detainees during arrest and interrogation

  • A Revolution for All

    Women’s Rights in the New Libya

    This 40-page report highlights key steps that Libya should take to meet its international obligations by firmly rejecting gender-based discrimination in both law and practice.

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  • Tunisia’s Repressive Laws

    The Reform Agenda

    This report identifies freedom of speech and independent courts as two of ten priorities for legal reform.

  • The Price of Independence

    Silencing Labor and Student Unions in Tunisia

    This report documents Tunisian authorities' tight system of control over unions and union activists, highlighting in particular the plight of labor, student, and journalist unions that have criticized government policies.

  • A Larger Prison

    "A Larger Prison"

    This 42-page report documents the range of repressive measures, many of them arbitrary, that Tunisian authorities impose on former prisoners.

  • Ill-Fated Homecomings

    A Tunisian Case Study of Guantanamo Repatriations

    This 43-page report describes the experiences of the two Tunisians returned home 11 weeks ago and urges the US government to set up a process that would give detainees advance notice of their transfer, and allow them the opportunity to contest it before a federal court if they fear torture or ill-treatment upon return to

  • Off the Record

    U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the “War on Terror”

    This 21-page briefing paper, published by six leading human rights organizations, includes the names and details of 39 people who are believed to have been held in secret US custody abroad and whose current whereabouts remain unknown.

  • False Freedom

    Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa

    This 144-page report documents online censorship and cases in which Internet users have been detained for their online activities in countries across the region, including Tunisia, Iran, Syria and Egypt.

  • Tunisia: Crushing the Person, Crushing a Movement

    This 39-page report charges that the government’s policy of isolation is driven not by legitimate penological concerns. Rather, this national policy seeks to punish and demoralize jailed leaders of the banned Nahdha (Renaissance) party, as part of government efforts to destroy the country’s Islamist movement.

  • Long-Term Solitary Confinement of Political Prisoners in Tunisia

    This 33-page report documents how the Tunisian authorities continue to hold as many as 40 of the country’s more than 500 political prisoners in long-term isolation in prisons around the country. This policy violates Tunisian law as well as international penal standards, undermining government claims of prison reform.