HRW: Tunisia should reform sentencing for drug possession crimes News
HRW: Tunisia should reform sentencing for drug possession crimes

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Tuesday urged [report] Tunisia to reform its drug sentencing laws. According to the report, 28 percent of Tunisia’s prison population are individuals who were convicted of drug crimes related to recreational use of controlled substances. The sentencing issue arises from the 1992 implementation Law No. 92-52 on narcotics, which includes a minimum one-year sentences for people who are arrested for possession of small amounts of an illegal substance. According to HRW’s Tunisia director Amna Guellali, “[i]f you smoke a joint in Tunisia, you risk getting arrested, beaten up by the police, sent for a urine test, and then sentenced to a year in an overcrowded prison with hardened criminals as your cellmates.” HRW believes that Tunisia must adopt new legislation reforming Law 52 to impose more rehabilitative sentences rather than punitive jail time for recreational drug users.

Tunisia adopted a new constitution [JURIST report] in January 2014 that offered more expansive freedoms of speech, conscience and religion. The new constitutional rights guaranteed by the constitution compelled HRW to seek [JURIST report] the release of prisoners convicted in violation of their human rights. In April of this year an analysis by HRW of the Tunisian government’s new draft counterterrorism law suggested [JURIST report] that the law as drafted could potentially lead to serious human rights abuses. The practices that HRW denounced remained in place after the passing of the constitution. Last year HRW reported [JURIST report] that Tunisia had failed to bring to justice those responsible for the use of excessive force by police during the uprising of 2011. Also last year HRW criticized [JURIST report] the Tunisian government after it sentenced blogger Yassine Ayari to three years in prison for posting criticism of government officials on Facebook.

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