Joint submission for the universal and periodic session of the universal review of Tunisia 41st periodic and review working group by the Coalition against the criminalization of poverty and minor crimes and NGOs partners.
“The right to life and the abolition of the death penalty in Tunisia”
Since Tunisia’s independence in 1956, 135 persons have been executed, more than half of them in cases of a political nature, and they were buried in secret cemeteries without enabling their families to receive their bodies.
The Tunisian state has committed itself since 1991 to suspension the implementation of the death penalty , and since 2012 has continued to vote in favor of the United Nations resolution calling for a global suspension on the implementation of the death penalty , and the 2014 constitution recognized in article 22 that “the right to life is sacred and may not be violated except in extreme cases that are controlled by the law.
Despite the suspension of the death penalty 31 years ago, the path towards abolition remains extremely fragile , as calls by some conservative and populist currents to activate the death penalty under the pretext of addressing the escalation of crime , and won after the 2019 elections, the support of the president of the republic .Civil and military courts also continue to issue death sentences on an exalting basis, under the pretext of addressing the aggravation of criminal or terrorist crime, as the total number of those sentenced to death reached the limits of 2021 ,about 136 including three women and two suffering from psychological and mental disorders , and January 2022 alone witnessed 13 death sentences and in March 17 judgments.
The twenty–seventh session of the universal periodic review in 2017, witnessed the submission of 18 recommendations to Tunisia regarding the death penalty , of which only 4 were accepted, and only one of them was implemented, which is to maintain the optional suspension of the death penalty execution.
