Tunisia’s new constitution ‘lacks mechanisms to protect rights’: HRW

By Yosra Ounas

TUNIS, Tunisia (AA) - Tunisia’s proposed constitution by President Kais Saied lacks "mechanisms to protect rights,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday.

In a statement, the New York-based rights group said the constitution "enumerates many rights but eviscerates the checks and balances needed to protect them."

The draft constitution "gives far more power to the presidency than the current constitution," it warned.

Eric Goldstein, HRW's the Middle East and North Africa deputy director, said the lack of mechanisms to protect rights is "what is dangerously missing in Saied's draft constitution for Tunisia."

On July 5, the Tunisian president called on Tunisians to vote “yes” on the draft constitution during a planned referendum on July 25.

Under the new constitution, the government will answer to the president, not to the parliament. The draft also gives power to the president to dissolve the parliament which could serve for two terms of five years. The 142-article document also says that Tunisia is a republic with a presidential system.

Tunisia has been in the throes of a deep political crisis that aggravated the country's economic conditions since Saied ousted the government, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority in July 2021. He later dissolved the assembly after lawmakers held a session to revoke his measures.

While Saied insists that his measures were meant to "save" the country, critics have accused him of orchestrating a coup.

*Writing by Ahmed Asma in Ankara