The Indigenous World 2026: Tunisia

Written on 22 April 2026. Posted in Tunisia

As elsewhere in North Africa, the Indigenous population of Tunisia is formed of the Amazighs. There are no official statistics on their number in the country but Amazigh associations estimate there to be around 1 million Tamazight speakers, accounting for some 10% of the total population. Tunisia is the country in which the Amazighs have suffered the greatest forced Arabization. This explains the low proportion of Tamazight speakers in the country. There are, however, increasing numbers of Tunisians who, despite no longer being able to speak Tamazight, still consider themselves Amazighs rather than Arabs.

The Amazighs of Tunisia are spread throughout all of the country’s regions, from Azemour and Sejnane in the north to Tittawin (Tataouine) in the south, passing through El-Kef, Thala, Siliana, Gafsa, Gabès, Matmata, Tozeur, Djerba. As elsewhere in North Africa, many of Tunisia’s Amazigh have left their mountains and deserts to seek work in the cities and abroad. There are thus a large number of Amazigh in Tunis, where they live in the city’s different neighbourhoods, particularly the old town (Medina), working primarily in skilled crafts and petty trade. The Indigenous Amazigh population can be distinguished not only by their language but also by their culture (traditional dress, music, cooking and Ibadite religion practised by the Amazigh of Djerba).

Since the 2011 “revolution”, numerous Amazigh cultural associations have emerged with the aim of achieving recognition and use of the Amazigh language and culture. The Tunisian state does not, however, recognize the existence of the country’s Amazigh population. Parliament adopted a new Constitution in 2014 that totally obscures the country’s Amazigh (historical, cultural and linguistic) dimensions. The Constitution refers only to the Tunisians’ sources of “Arab and Muslim identity” and expressly affirms Tunisia’s membership of the “culture and civilization of the Arab and Muslim nation”. It commits the state to working to strengthen “the Maghreb union as a stage towards achieving Arab unity […]”. Article 1 goes on to reaffirm that “Tunisia is a free state, […], Islam is its religion, Arabic its language” while Article 5 confirms that “the Tunisian Republic forms part of the Arab Maghreb”. The new Tunisian Constitution, adopted in July 2022, proclaims that “Tunisia forms a part of the Islamic nation" (article 5), that “Tunisia forms a part of the Arab nation and that the official language is Arabic” (article 6) and that “the Tunisian Republic forms a part of the Greater Arab Maghreb” (article 7). Article 44 stipulates that “the State shall ensure that the younger generations are rooted in their Arab and Islamic identity and their national belonging. It shall ensure the consolidation, promotion and generalization of the Arabic language”. Tunisia makes no reference to its Indigenous Amazigh history, nor does it recognize the country's human, linguistic and cultural diversity.

On an international level, Tunisia has ratified the main international standards and voted in favour of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007. These international texts remain unknown to the vast majority of citizens and legal professionals, and are not applied in domestic courts. 

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Tunisia remains lacking in stability

Following a terrorist attack targeting the Tunisian presidential guard in Tunis on 24 November 2015, a state of emergency was declared throughout the country. Since then, it has been extended year by year up to 31 December 2025. Tunisia has thus settled into a permanent state of exception, which has enabled the Tunisian authorities to curb individual and collective freedoms and resort to numerous arrests and sentences that are considered arbitrary.

Judges, lawyers, human rights defenders and members of civil society organizations have been arrested and imprisoned for exercising their professional rights or their right to freedom of opinion and expression.

UN experts[1] and NGOs such as Amnesty International[2] have called on Tunisian authorities to release the detainees and respect international human rights standards. According to the Euro-Med NGO Human Rights Monitor, “Tunisian authorities continue to use national legal frameworks in a manner that strips them of their human rights substance, employing them as instruments to restrict civic space and hinder freedom of the media and civil society work.”[3]

On 07 March 2025, Tunisia notified the African Union Commission of its decision to withdraw the declaration provided for in Article 34(6) of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. Tunisia ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights in 1983, and officially became a party to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights in 2007. Tunisia's withdrawal from the African Court now prevents Tunisians and human rights NGOs from bringing cases directly before the African Court to allege violations of their fundamental rights. According to some Tunisian NGOs, Tunisia's withdrawal from the African Court “constitutes a severe blow and a serious setback for human rights in Tunisia” (Committee for Justice) and “a serious breach of the 2022 Constitution and a reneging on the commitments made by Tunisia in terms of justice and the protection of human rights, stemming from its ratification of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” (Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia).[4]

Observations and recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Tunisia

As part of its monitoring of the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racism and Racial Discrimination (CERD) examined the periodic report of the Tunisian government at its 116^th session, and held a hearing with the Tunisian delegation on 26 and 27 November 2025 at the headquarters of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, on the subject of racism and racial discrimination in Tunisia (CERD/C/TUN/CO/20622).

The CERD experts noted that there was “no official data on the ethnic composition of Tunisian society, on national or ethnic minorities or on the Indigenous population”, and therefore asked the Tunisian delegation to provide information on the socio-economic situation of different groups, such as Amazighs and Tunisians of African descent. The experts also wanted to know “whether the State recognizes the Amazigh as an Indigenous people and protects their collective rights in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Tunisia approved in 2007”. The CERD experts were also concerned about the refusal to register Amazigh names in civil registers and the absence of Amazigh representatives in the Assembly of People's Representatives.

After hearing the Tunisian delegation's responses and explanations, the CERD experts published their concluding observations and recommendations, extracts from which are given below.

1. The Committee recommends that the State Party collect and provide to the Committee reliable, updated and comprehensive statistics on the demographic composition of the population, based on the principle of self-identification, including on the Amazigh ethnic minority group and Black Tunisians. It also recommends that the State party produce disaggregated statistics on the socioeconomic situation of ethnic minority groups and non-citizens and on their access to education, employment, health care and housing.

2. The Committee recommends that the State party (a) ensure the effective implementation of the circular by the Minister of Local Affairs of 15 July 2020 to allow the registration of Amazigh names for newborns; (b) take effective measures, including special measures, to address the marginalization and structural discrimination faced by the Amazigh ethnic minority and guarantee their access to education, employment, health care and housing; (c) adopt measures to ensure access to education in their mother-tongue for members of the ethnic Amazigh minority group in public schools and universities, and to allocate sufficient human, technical and financial resources to ensure high-quality instruction in the Tamazight language; and (d) collect and include, in its next periodic report, statistics about the ethnic Amazigh minority group, particularly concerning their economic, social and cultural situation.

3. The Committee recommends that the State party adopt measures to ensure fair and equitable representation of Black Tunisians and the Amazigh ethnic minority group in the public sector and in decision-making and high-level positions, including through special measures and by identifying and removing the barriers that members of Black Tunisians and the Amazigh ethnic minority group face in this respect.

4. The Committee recommends that the State party adopt measures to enhance the school curricula review process in order to integrate the concepts of ethnic and cultural diversity and the fight against racial hatred and discrimination at all levels of education and to ensure that history education is conducted in such a way as to prevent a dominant historical narrative and ethnic hierarchizing. It also recommends that the State party run awareness-raising campaigns for the general public, civil servants, law enforcement officials and judicial authorities on the importance of ethnic and cultural diversity, tolerance and inter-ethnic understanding.

Tunisia's Amazighs are entitled to peace and security but this comes at the price of denying their rights as the country's Indigenous people

Tunisia's Amazigh movement, comprising mainly associations for cultural promotion, heritage and environmental protection, has grown greatly since the “2011 revolution” but has dropped back sharply since 2019 in terms of the number of players, the number of activities organized and the content of these activities. Given the chaotic political context, restrictions on freedoms and repression, Amazigh movement leaders are playing it safe by practising a form of self-censorship that consists of limiting their organizations' activities to cultural aspects only. In 2025, for example, the associations organized celebrations of Yennayer, the Amazigh New Year, visits to Amazigh heritage sites and discovery workshops but no activities on the rights of the Amazigh as the country's Indigenous people.

Tunisian Amazigh organizations have also disappeared from the international scene, and have even broken off their traditional relations with Amazigh organizations in other North African countries. Similarly, while the UN gives them the opportunity to express themselves at international meetings and advocate for their rights, Tunisian Amazigh organizations are totally absent from these international bodies for fear of reprisals. No Tunisian Amazigh organizations have prepared any reports, for example, nor contributed to the NGO reports submitted to the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination, which examined the case of Tunisia in November 2025. H. Zemmour, an Amazigh activist from the Gabès region, tells us: “The Tunisian government does not recognize our existence as Amazighs, and even less so as natives of this country. So, officially, we don't exist. As a result, it's dangerous for us to raise our voices.” In the current context of criminalization of rights and freedoms, Tunisia's Amazighs, who form one of the most vulnerable sectors of society, have no choice but to show great discretion in order to avoid being subjected to repressive measures by the Tunisian government.

Belkacem Lounes is a Doctor of Economics, university teacher (Grenoble University), former expert member of the Working Group on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (2016-2021), former member of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2018-2020), and author of numerous reports and articles on Amazigh and Indigenous rights.

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Notes and references

^[1] Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Tunisia: UN experts alarmed by deteriorating human rights situation of lawyers.” 14 July 2025. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/tunisia-un-experts-alarmed-deteriorating-human-rights-situation-lawyers

^[2] Amnesty International. “Tunisie: Action complémentaire: Des défenseurs des droits humains en procès.” 10 November 2025. https://www.amnesty.org/fr/documents/mde30/0468/2025/fr/

^[3] Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. “Tunisia: Suspension of civil society organisations continues efforts to diminish rights and suppress freedoms.” 6 November 2025. https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6908/Tunisia%3A-Suspension-of-civil-society-organisations-continues-efforts-to-diminish-rights-and-suppress-freedoms?utm_source=chatgpt.com

^[4] Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia (CRLDHT), https://crldht.com/ Committee for Justice. “Tunisie: Le CFJ dénonce la décision de retirer la reconnaissance de la compétence de la Cour africaine et appelle à son annulation pour garantir l’accès à la justice.” 24 March 2025. https://www.cfjustice.org/fr/tunisie-le-cfj-denonce-la-decision-de-retirer-la-reconnaissance-de-la-competence-de-la-cour-africaine-et-appelle-a-son-annulation-pour-garantir-lacces-a-la-justice/

Tags: Global governance