TUNISIA: Joint resolution on the arbitrary detention of Sonia Dahmani

Having taken note of the violent arrest of our colleague, Sonia Dahmani, lawyer at the Tunisian Bar, inside the Bar Association, on Saturday 11 May 2024, by hooded individuals who roughed up lawyers and journalists present,

Having taken note of the press release issued by the Tunis section of the National Bar Association of Tunisia, which held an emergency meeting on 11 May, calling for a general strike,

The undersigned :

RECALL that on 18 March 1969 Tunisia ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted in 1968 by the United Nations, which protects in particular the rights to life, liberty and security, freedom of thought, conscience and religion and the prohibition of arbitrary detention,

RECALL that on 23 September 1988 Tunisia also ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment adopted in 1987 by the United Nations and its Optional Protocol, on 29 June 2011, adopted in 2002,

EXPRESS THEIR INDIGNATION at the verbal and physical violence perpetrated against Tunisian lawyers and journalists with the aim of intimidating and silencing them,

CONDEMN the violent arrest of a lawyer and chronicler who, after making comments on television about the situation in the country, was summoned to appear before the courts and took refuge in the lawyer’s office, where she was violently arrested,

BELIEVE that forcibly entering the premises of the National Bar Association constitutes an unprecedented and alarming attack on this place, a sanctuary for the rights of the defence and freedom of expression, where lawyers, defenders of the rule of law and the last bastions against arbitrariness, meet,

INSURGE against such practices, demand the immediate release of our colleague Sonia Dahmani and an end to all forms of repression against Tunisian lawyers, journalists and all other defenders of freedoms,

SUPPORT the lawyers of the Tunis section of the Tunisian National Bar Association and all colleagues who are being hindered in the exercise of their profession as lawyers,

CALL for a gathering of lawyers in robes, journalists and human rights defenders in front of the Tunisian Embassy, 25 rue Barbet de Jouy, Paris 7ème, to defend fundamental rights and freedoms, this Friday 17 May at 12.30 pm.

Paris, 12 May 2024.

Signatories :

• Conférence des Bâtonnieres
• Conseil National des Barreaux
• Paris Bar Association
• International Union of Lawyers
• International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger (OIAD)
• Défense sans frontière – avocats solidaires
• CIB
• Avocats sans frontières (France)

Read the official resolution