Tunisia PM pledges to improve detention conditions, reduce overcrowding in prisons

Tunisia will improve detention conditions and reduce overcrowding in prisons, Prime Minister Najla Bouden told a delegation from the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) yesterday.

Bouden emphasised “Tunisia’s keenness to further develop the prison system through improving detention conditions in confinement centres and prisons and adopting alternative mechanisms to reduce overcrowding in respect of human rights principles.”

The UN committee head, Abdullah Wanir, was quoted by the Tunisian government as saying that “the meeting with Bouden was constructive and explicit, and it touched upon the obligations of the Republic of Tunisia in the field of torture prevention, appreciating in this context the positive steps that Tunisia has achieved in the field of combating and preventing torture, especially through the establishment of the National Authority for the Prevention of Torture (INPT), which is considered the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa.”

Wanir’s visit to Tunisia aimed to assess the implementation of the recommendations presented by the committee to Tunisia in its first report issued in 2016.

READ: Kais Saied is taking Tunisia back to one-man rule