Tunisia suspends Nobel Peace Prize-winning LTDH rights group

Tunisian authorities on Friday ordered a one-month suspension of activities by the Human Rights League (LTDH), according to a statement from the group, which was among the civil society quartet that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015. No comment was immediately available on the matter from the government. The league said the move was part of a “wider pattern of increasingly systematic curbs on civil society and on free and independent voices”. In October, Tunisia also suspended several prominent groups, including the Democratic Women and the Economic and Social Rights Forum, while rights organizations have criticized what they say is an unprecedented crackdown targeting NGOs, opposition groups and journalists since President Kais Saied seized additional powers in 2021. LTDH, an outspoken critic of Saied, has repeatedly warned that Tunisia has been sliding toward authoritarian rule since Saied suspended parliament in 2021 and later began ruling by decree. Saied has said