Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

(CIHRS/IFEX) - January 10, 2010 - The undersigned Arab human rights organizations wish to express their condemnation and profound contempt for the smear campaigns launched against prominent Tunisian human rights defenders, among them Kamel Jendoubi, president of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network; Sihem Bensedrine, spokeswoman for the National Council for Liberties; Mokhtar Trifi, president of the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights; and Khamis Chamari, the former Secretary-General of the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights and a founding member of the October 18 Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

Led and directed by the pro-government Tunisian press, these campaigns have gone so far as to accuse human rights defenders and opposition journalists in Tunisia of collaborating and spying for Israel. Containing various incitements to murder, the campaigns are preparing public opinion to disregard any potential assassinations of these activists, already branded as "traitors."

Slim Bagga - a Tunisian opposition journalist who lives in France - received a death threat letter from an anonymous Palestinian living in Lebanon for being a traitor and spying for Israel. This happened in the wake of Bagga’s contribution to a book exposing the growing political influence of the wife of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in addition to her influence on the financial and economic business of the state.

The undersigned organizations declare their solidarity with human rights defenders in Tunisia, and they place full responsibility for these smear campaigns with the Tunisian authorities. These slanderous campaigns are nothing but a cover for the brutal practices of the Tunisian police state, which have targeted human rights defenders and critics of the state’s repressive policies, particularly over the last year. Because of these practices, a growing number of human rights defenders, journalists, and independent political dissidents face degrading physical and verbal assaults, arbitrary arrests, and unfair prosecution. The homes and offices of political and rights activists have also been placed under a tight security siege.

The undersigned Arab human rights organizations urge the Tunisian authorities to take immediate steps to stop the smear campaigns, which, with the claims of treason, constitute a grave breach of journalistic ethics and freedom of expression. The authorities must end all forms of abuse against human rights defenders and Tunisian human rights organizations. We also call on UN human rights bodies and agencies, particularly the office of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, to undertake the necessary measures to stop these campaigns, which are aimed at covering up physical attacks suffered by human rights defenders in the country.