The EuroMed Parliamentary Assembly will be convening in Tunis on March 16 and 17, 2007. Once again, the Tunisian government will present a respectable façade to the world - as it has been the case with the World Summit on the Information Society in November 2005 - despite the fact that ongoing, systematic violations of individual and public freedom characterize the human rights situation in the country:  

*  Freedom of the press is curtailed:

The Tunisian magazine Kalima has been banned; other publications that are considered a “nuisance” are either prevented from being published or seriously delayed; dailies with an international audience, such as Le Monde, Libération and Le Canard Enchaîné, are routinely banned; the web sites of Libération and the EMHRN are blocked. Censorship is ever present.

Just recently, on March 9, journalist Mohamed Fourati has been sentenced to one year and two months imprisonment.

*  Freedom of expression and freedom of opinion are curbed:

The condemnation of the lawyer Mohammed Abbou, still in jail after two years for having freely expressed his opinions, is a case in point. Mr. Abou was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment at the end of what all observers considered a travesty of a trial during which the basic rights of the defense were violated.

* The justice system is exploited for political ends:

The independence of the judiciary is an empty slogan devoid of any reality. The number of arbitrary trials is increasing, particularly since the terrorist attacks of December 2006 and the hardening of the anti-terror legislation. Torture is widespread and goes unpunished.

*Freedom of assembly and association is almost nonexistent:

The CNLT has been prevented from holding its general assembly since 2004. During the press conference recently held on Thursday, March 8, on the living conditions of political prisoners in Tunisia, police surrounded the headquarters of the CNLT and physically assailed activists as well as journalists. 

The Ligue Tunisienne des droits de l’Homme is subjected to constant harassment which, among other things, has prevented the organization from holding its congress since 2005. The latest form of harassment has been attempts to strangle the LTDH financially, for instance by continuing blocking the transfer of money for a project supported by the European Union.

Many meetings organized by NGOs or opposition parties are banned.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network calls upon the EuroMed Parliamentary Assembly to take a public stand on those issues and to discuss them during their session.

The EMHRN also call upon the Tunisian government to put an end to all forms of censorship, to end the control of the executive over the judiciary, to free all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in arbitrary detention and to allow human rights defenders to operate freely.