AGAIN ON MAY 17 IN LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL HOMOPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA

The signatory associations, members of the Civil Collective for Individual and Allied Freedoms, are celebrating May 17, World Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, this year, while the situation of LGBTQI ++ people is stagnating and the official institutions of the State continue to to use freedom-killing laws and homophobic and transphobic practices;

Sur le plan juridique, les articles qui sanctionnent les personnes ayant une sexualité, une identité ou une expression de genre non normatives, sont toujours là, immuables et entrainant d’innombrables cas de harcèlement et d’intimidation, et des dizaines d’arrestations, dont certaines aboutissent à des condamnations, chaque année;

These same legal provisions renew their silence with regard to the change of marital status, and leave the door open to haphazard judicial interpretations and shameful prison practices with regard to Trans * people;

On the judicial level, the police proceed to arrest and question people having an appearance or an attitude on the basis of which they allow themselves to presume their sexual or gender identity. The courts also continue to apply article 230 of the penal code which punishes homosexual persons with 3 years' imprisonment, and article 226 et seq. To extend the repression to any act or attitude contrary to "good morals" and which " clash with modesty ”. Despite the commitment of the Tunisian authorities to no longer use anal tests to prove "sodomy" and this, since 2017, the courts continue to order this practice considered internationally to be a practice of torture.

For its part, the government is continuing its fierceness against the Shams association and is still calling for its dissolution, by initiating proceedings in this direction in the courts;

Sur le plan social, et devant cet environnement légal et institutionnel hostile à la diversité et la différence, les crimes homophobes et transphobes se poursuivent dans une atmosphère d’impunité. Atmosphère qui fait qu’un grand nombre de personnes LGBTQI++ souffrent en silence et se désistent de leurs droits les plus élémentaires : ester en justice, la santé, l’éducation, le travail… Plusieurs d’entre elles ne quittent leur domicile qu’en cas de nécessité absolue, afin d’éviter tout risque de harcèlement, de violence ou d’arrestation. D’autres, se sont trouvées dans l’obligation de quitter le pays.

Faced with this alarming situation, the member associations of the Civil pour les Libertés Individuelles collective call:

• L’Assemblée des Représentant.e.s du Peuple, à accélérer le processus de mise en place de la cour constitutionnelle, la principale garantie du respect des droits définis par la Constitution dans les lois en cours d’élaboration et d’application, et l’examen et l’adoptiondu projet du Code des libertés individuelles qui a été déposé par un ensemble de député.e.s depuis le mois d’octobre 2018 ; projet qui prévoit la reconnaissance de l’identité de genre et le changement de sexe, la dépénalisation de l’homosexualité, la sanction de l’homophobie…
• The Head of Government, to adopt a national penal policy based on human rights "in a civil and democratic state" (Article 49 of the Constitution) and which recognizes the right to be different, including in matters of sexual identity, d expression and gender identity. As well as to ban police and judicial practices which continue to arrest and judge people on the basis of their apparent or presumed identity;
• The Ministers of Justice and of the Interior, to ensure a good application of the constitution by abandoning this police and judicial harassment against LGBTQI ++ people and by instituting good practices at the level of the agents of the judicial police and the agents of the services penitentiaries for the respect of the human dignity of LGBTQI ++ people;
• The magistrates of the Republic, to apply the Constitution which makes them the protectors of rights and freedoms, to rule out the application of articles contrary to this supreme norm and in particular articles 230 and 226, to no longer order the anal test; and to adopt a case law respectful of the rights of people to a sexual and gender identity, which corresponds to their being and to continue in the same direction as the decision of July 9, 2018, which recognizes the right to change the sex and change the gender. 'legal identity in official documents;
• Les médecins légistes, à refuser de pratiquer le test anal, banni par le conseil national de l’ordre des médecins, et à appliquer leur Code de déontologie médicale qui fait de la dignité une valeur fondamentale de ses dispositions ;
• The media, to adopt an attitude respectful of the human rights of LGBTQI ++ people and to refrain from using any homophobic and transphobic discourse.

The signatory associations:

1. Tunisian League for Human Rights
2. Tunisian Association of Democratic Women
3. Tunisian Association for the Defense of Individual Freedoms
5. Association Damj – pour la justice et l’égalité
6. Tunisian Association for Positive Prevention
7. Shams Association
8. Mawjoudin Association
9. Chouf Association
10. Association for the Promotion of the Right to Difference
11. Tunisian federation for citizenship on both shores
12. CALAM Association
13. Legal Agenda Tunisia
14. Tunisian Association for Reproductive Health

1. Tawhida Ben Cheikh Group
2. Tahadi Association
3. Free Sight Association
4. Association FanniRaghmanAnni
5. Doustourna Association
7. International Federation for Human Rights
8. Euromed Rights Network
9. HumanRights Watch
11. Al Bawsala Association
12. Outcasts collective
13. Alwani Association
14. Comité pour le Respect des Libertés et des Droits de l’Homme
15. Association Tunisie Terre des Hommes
16. Ahmed Tlili Foundation for Democratic Culture

Dated: 

Thursday, May 16, 2019