Tunisian authorities have ordered the Human Rights League (LTDH), one of Africa's oldest rights groups and a co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, to cease its activities for a month. The move comes amid growing concerns that the country is sliding toward authoritarian rule.

Founded in 1976, LTDH is one of the oldest human rights organizations in the Arab world and Africa. It has long been a vital force in human rights advocacy in Tunisia and was part of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015 for its role in supporting the country's democratic transition.

The group has been an outspoken critic of President Kais Saied, who seized additional powers in 2021. LTDH had already been barred from visiting prisons in several cities for months. The organization condemned the suspension, calling it part of a "wider pattern of increasingly systematic curbs on civil society and on free and independent voices."

In October, Tunisia suspended several other prominent groups, including the Democratic Women and the Economic and Social Rights Forum. Saied, who has ruled by decree since suspending parliament in 2021, denies seeking to be a dictator and claims freedoms are guaranteed, but that no one is above the law.

He has often referred to foreign funding, which rights groups sometimes rely on, as a threat to the country. Tunisia, once hailed as the only democratic success story from the Arab Spring 15 years ago, is now under fire for growing restrictions on the opposition, media, and civil society.

Source: www.dw.com