Congress sounds alarm over Tunisia’s proposed NGO law
Lawmakers who have long championed the fledgling democracy are worried about potential efforts to rein in civil society.
While US lawmakers have been among Tunisia’s most enthusiastic cheerleaders since the 2011 Jasmine Revolution, a proposed Tunisian law to more tightly regulate nongovernmental organizations has prompted Congress to issue a rare rebuke against the Arab world’s newest democracy.
Senate appropriators are demanding a report on the Tunisian government’s efforts to pass a bill that would supplant existing NGO regulations and potentially give the government more control over civil society. Buried in the report accompanying the annual Senate foreign assistance bill is language directing the State Department to provide Congress with an assessment of “the content of the proposed NGO law for Tunisia and its implications on the ability of USAID [the US Agency for International Development] and the Department of State to support Tunisian civil society organizations.”
