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Rights Translation : Vanessa Szakal 05 April 2018

Reforming Tunisia’s law on associations: towards a lockdown on freedoms?

The legal framework governing associations is high on the reforms agenda, at least according to a meeting held by Mehdi Ben Gharbia and a group of legal experts in February. The initiative echoes a recent Financial Action Task Force evaluation in which Tunisia was knocked down a grade for its non-profit sector. And while the fight against money laundering and terrorism is the government’s key argument when it comes to reforming legislation on associations, the proposed amendments, in parallel with the demonization of certain associations, portend rights violations and a gradual lockdown of the sector.

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Culture Vanessa Szakal 25 March 2018

The Barker at Bardo: an art exhibition with bigger bark than bite

March 18 marked three years since the attack at Tunisia’s Bardo National Museum. Among the centuries of history and art housed within the former palace of the Beys, the memory of the recent incident and its 23 victims still lingers. But today, the building is alive with school groups and visitors, locals and foreigners alike. From March 11 – April 12, 2018, Museum visitors will discover « The Barker at Bardo », a contemporary art exhibition by artist Faten Rouissi in partnership with the Agency for the Development of National Heritage and Cultural Promotion.

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Rights Vanessa Szakal 21 March 2018

Tunisia’s new regional administrative courts: What challenges lie ahead?

Just in time for long-awaited municipal elections on May 6, 2018, Tunisia’s 12 new administrative courts are finally up and running. Prior to the creation of these regional chambers, all complaints concerning violations and abuse of power by public authorities were filed with the administrative judiciary headquartered in the capital. Despite delays and funding constraints that have beleaguered their organization, a dozen new chambers and 60 newly-appointed judges have hit the ground running since they became operative on February 22 of this year. For in addition to its day-to-day litigations, the administrative judiciary has a pivotal role to play in ensuring the integrity of upcoming local elections.

American grains in Tunisia: can self-sufficiency be imported?

The National Agronomy Institute of Tunis has collaborated on several projects with the US Grain Council over the past decade. Now they are launching a new project in the country’s animal feed sector. On March 1, Minister of Agriculture Samir Taieb and US Ambassador to Tunisia Daniel Rubinstein convened at INAT to announce the creation of a regional training center for feed manufacture engineers and technicians. With the aim of improving feed and livestock production in Tunisia, the project promises to serve consumers but also farmers and feed manufacturers. The USGC is clear in its communications that the project also serves to promote American grains in Tunisia’s import-saturated market.

Hunting in Tunisia: Obsolete legislation, poor management and a lack of political will

In January 2018, the Lebanese Hunting Club posted a series of photographs displaying hunters smiling behind their spoils, hundreds of birds downed during a trip to Tunisia. The images suscitated a wave of outrage by conservation groups not only for the way that the group advertised their copious kill, but for the fact that hunting of this scale is permitted under current legislation. On paper, regulations in the sector were designed to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems. To what extent do today’s hunting practices, quotas and implementation live up to this role?

Constitutional Court: consensus blocked it, consensus to move it forward

In parliament this week, deputies fixed the date on which they will elect the first four members of Tunisia’s Constitutional Court. Long held up in the selection process, the assembly now has less than a month to approve candidates before voting on March 13, 2018. Four years after the adoption of a new Constitution and three years after passing the organic law concerning the Constitutional Court, deputies have been under mounting pressure to establish the unique authority with the capacity to ensure the constitutionality of the laws. Consensus is at once the main cause of delays and also the solution of last recourse. At this late phase, will it enable them to move forward?

Culture Vanessa Szakal 20 Feb 2018

Interview avec Habibi Funk à Tunis [Vidéo]

Pour le finissage de Geniale Dilletanten, exposition itinérante de l’Institut Goethe (20-28 janvier), la performance de djing d’Habibi Funk fait salle comble au Marengo Club, au centre-ville de Tunis. De son vrai nom, Jannis Stürtz, co-fondateur du label Jakarta Records à Berlin, donne, à travers le projet Habibi Funk une deuxième et parfois une première vie aux œuvres méconnues d’artistes de la scène underground des années 70 et 80 de la Tunisie, d’Algérie, d’Egypte, du Soudan et du Liban. A l’occasion de son séjour tunisois, Nawaat l’a rencontré. Interview.

De Chili’s à KFC, vers une razzia des franchises américaines en Tunisie ?

KFC, Pizza Hut, Chili’s, Johnny Rockets, Papa John’s… la récente arrivée en Tunisie des géants du fast-food américains ne passe pas inaperçue dans un paysage économique qui leur était auparavant fermé. Leur implémentation est facilitée par un nouveau cadre légal. Reste à savoir : est-il possible pour la Tunisie de s’ouvrir aux franchises étrangères et les potentiels avantages qu’elles apportent, tout en assurant une protection adéquate aux franchisés, concurrents et consommateurs tunisiens ?

Violence against women: New Tunisian law in effect, will it be effective?

Tunisian legislation adopted in July 2017 to eliminate violence against women finally went into effect on February 1. Organic law n˚2017-58 of 11 August 2017 amends certain discriminatory provisions of the penal code and requires State institutions to develop a coordinated approach to prevention as well as assistance and support for victims of violence. The adopted text is the culmination of numerous drafts and a years-long struggle by a few civil society associations. Now that the legal means are more or less in place, the question is how, and with what means, to implement anticipated reforms?

Interview avec Kamel Jendoubi: « La situation politique ne présage rien de bon »

Dans cette interview, Kamel Jendoubi, ancien président de l’Instance Supérieure Indépendante des Elections (ISIE), met en garde contre les dangereuses entraves au processus électoral tout en relevant les déviations qu’il a connu durant l’année écoulée. Il y fait part aussi de son inquiétude des dérives inconstitutionnelles et leur impact politique sur les résultats des prochaines élections municipales qui risquent de reproduire la domination des mêmes partis et les mêmes conflits sur le partage du pouvoir. Un scénario plausible en l’absence totale d’un projet clair, à moyen et à long terme, concernant la gouvernance locale.

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Culture Vanessa Szakal 03 February 2018

Interview with Habibi Funk in Tunis [Video]

On the closing evening of the Goethe Institut’s Geniale Dilletanten in Tunis (January 20-28), the expo’s downtown venue was packed for a DJ set by Habibi Funk. Berlin-based Jannis Stürtz, co-founder of Jakarta Records, began younger music project Habibi Funk which revives long-forgotten or little-known songs of the 70’s and 80’s from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Sudan and Lebanon. As he gets set up for the evening mix, the man behind Habibi Funk experience talks to Nawaat about the travel, research, elbow-rubbing and ethical considerations that feed the project.

Interview with Hamza Meddeb: “The system keeps youth at the margins of society”

Tunisian political science scholar Hamza Meddeb published in 2015 “The state of injustice in the Maghreb: Morocco and Tunisia”. In one of the book’s chapters called “Waiting as a mode of governance in Tunisia”, he analyses the ways in which the Tunisian government diffuses social conflicts by inciting protestors to be patient and wait. At a moment when such manoeuvres seem to be reaching their limits, Nawaat sat with Hamza Meddeb to discuss the current protests. Interview.

سيدي بوسعيد: مشروع سياحي يهدد منطقة خضراء ذات قيمة أثرية

شرعت أوّل شهر ديسمبر 2017 شركة أكربول للسياحة والنزل في تهيئة وتوسعة قطعة أرض بالمنطقة الخضراء بسيدي بوسعيد قصد استثمارها في إقامة نزل سياحي ذو طابع مميز. هذا النشاط أثار احتجاجا في صفوف المواطنين ونشطاء في المجتمع المدني، تلاه قرار بلدي بإيقاف أشغال التهيئة والبناء. رغم أن هذه المنطقة صُنفت وفقا للأمر عدد 1246 المؤرخ في 07 أكتوبر 1985 كمنطقة خضراء ذات قيمة أثرية وتاريخية وطبيعية، فإنه تم الترخيص في 26 ماي 2016 لاستغلالها في إقامة مشروع سياحي.

“Fech nestannaw” anti-austerity protests continue in downtown Tunis

Friday, January 12 marked just over a week since protests broke out against the increased prices introduced by Tunisia’s 2018 budget. Unlike previous periods of contestation since the 2011 revolution, demonstrations in at least 18 regions across the country over the past week have been characterized by heightened tension leading to confrontations between protesters and security forces. Friday’s demonstration in Tunis, strained but peaceful, coincided with the court date of Ahmed Sassi, one of many campaign activists who has been arrested since January 4.

Map of protests: increased prices galvanize streets across Tunisia

Protests against the 2018 finance law, which began within parliament and media outlets long before hitting the streets, provoked tension around the approved increase in prices. Tunisians, already fed up with the repercussions of a prolonged economic crisis, have turned out into the streets. A new wave of protest movements began in January, and quickly turned into confronta-tions between protesters and security forces in 18 governorates. Clashes culminated on Monday night with the death of the first protester in Tebourba, just outside of the capital.

Carte d’identité biométrique: Entêtement sécuritaire et surdité parlementaire

Le projet de loi de la nouvelle carte d’identité biométrique sera soumis, cet après-midi, au vote de l’Assemblée des Représentants du Peuple (ARP) en plénière. En cas d’adoption, la nouvelle loi, qui apporte des modifications à la loi organique du 22 mars 1993, fera que chaque tunisien ait une carte à puce électronique contenant ses données personnelles et gérée par le ministère de l’Intérieur. Alors qu’une telle mise à jour pourrait constituer un pas vers la numérisation des services administratifs, elle présente également de hauts risques pour l’intégrité et la confidentialité des données personnelles.

Tunisia in 2017: The divide between local struggles and government policies

If many had hopes that 2017 might hold answers to the social and economic demands of the revolution, those hopes were short-lived. Tunisians faced an increasingly grim economic situation with an 8% drop in the value of the dinar and unemployment at 15.3%. The country’s long-awaited municipal elections, promising decentralized governance, are postponed until May 2018. Several months after the Prime Minister declared a « war against corruption », parliament passed the “reconciliation law” pardoning administrative officials implicated in economic crimes under the former regime. As much as resistance to changing old ways persists, protest movements represented a dynamic social force in 2017.

Detainee rights and Law 5: When practices don’t follow legislative reforms

In November, Lawyers Without Borders (ASF) and the Tunisian Bar Association (ONAT) launched a campaign to speed up the implementation of legislation intended to protect the rights of detainees. It has been almost two years since parliament voted to reform Tunisia’s penal code through the adoption of Law n°5-2016, known more simply as Law 5. And yet statistics and testimonies indicate that misconduct by officials and human rights abuses committed in police stations and detention centers remain commonplace. What will it take for old practices to be replaced by the procedures set out in the new legislation?