Human rights panel demands immediate release of Tunisian activist on hunger strike

By Anjali Sharma

UNITED NATIONS – UN independent rights experts on Wednesday reiterated their call to the Tunisian authorities to release an imprisoned activist who is intensive care after going on hunger strike.

The experts said that Sihem Bensedrine, 75, was the former president of the Truth and Dignity Commission in Tunisia until she was detained in August last year.

The rights experts in a joint appeal insisted that Ms. Bensedrine must be immediately and unconditionally released and any charges against her dropped.

Special Rapporteurs Bernard Duhaime, Mary Lawlor and Margaret Satterthwaite said that her arrest appeared to be in retaliation for her activism.

They cited her contribution to the Truth and Dignity Commission’s report which they said “should lead to the prosecution of alleged perpetrators of serious violations of past regimes”.

The Tunisian commission was established in 2014 in collaboration with the UN human rights office in Geneva and the UNDP.

The panel was to probe alleged abuses going back six decades as well as acting as an arbiter in cases of corruption and gross human rights violations.

Ms. Bensedrine is accused of falsifying the commission’s report on corruption in the banking system and has been the subject of judicial investigations since 2021, before her pre-trial detention last year, the experts stated.

They argued that commission members and staff cannot be held liable for any content, conclusions or recommendations in the report as their work was carried out in line with their mandate.