Source: Amnesty International –
Hussein Baoumi is Foreign Policy advocacy officer at Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.
This opinion piece was originally published here by EUobserver.
When I started as a researcher with Amnesty International in 2017, I had just moved to Tunisia, a country that had inspired and given hope to millions of people across the Middle East and North Africa for its transformation after the Arab Spring protests.
Tunisia’s story contrasted sharply to Egypt, where I witnessed firsthand how rule of law backsliding under a repressive government devastates almost every aspect of life.
The authorities have been supported in their campaign of repression by billions of euros in aid and loans from the EU, funds that have been handed over without any insistence that Egypt abide by the EU’s standards on human rights.
Unless it changes course, the EU is about to make the same mistakes in Tunisia that it made in Egypt.
In July 2021, Tunisian president Kaies Saied suspended parliament, dismissed the entire government, including the prime minister, and took executive control of the country.
Since then, he has dismantled most independent institutions, adopted repressive decrees, severely undermined judicial independence and the rule of law, arbitrarily arrested opponents and critics, rewritten the constitution, and restricted media freedom and the work of civil society organisations.
Unless it changes course, the EU is about to make the same mistakes in Tunisia that it made in Egypt
Hussein Baoumi, EU Foreign Policy Advocacy Officer
He has labelled opponents as traitors and foreign-funded agents and launched a wave of racist violent attacks against black migrants and refugees in the country.
These campaigns have left hundreds of victims behind bars and left others, as in the case of some refugees, to die at the borders in Libya.