Human Rights Watch has denounced what it says it a crackdown by authorities in Tunisia on political opponents and human rights activists.

It joined United Nations experts and other civil society groups in expressing deep concern about the country’s intensifying human rights crisis.

Five years after Tunisian President Kais Saied seized extraordinary executive powers, it says the situation has deteriorated dramatically.

Resurgent authoritarianism has translated into systematic repression of civil society, journalists, political opponents, independent lawyers, and migrants, and erosion of the rule of law.

HRW said Tunisian courts have recently sentenced eight human rights defenders to prison terms and heavy fines for charges connected to the work.

Speaking at the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, it call on the body and member states to break their silence un publicly condemn the repression.

It said their failure to do so all but signals a free pass for Tunisia’s authorities to continue escalating the crackdown.