On 20 September 2009, Mr. Walid Hosni, a third-year student at the Higher School of Medical Sciences in Tunis, disappeared under circumstances that remain unclear to this day.
Mr. Hosni, 22 years old, left his home at 6:30 AM as usual to run daily errands, without carrying any identification or a significant amount of money. Since then, his family has had no news of him and remains completely unaware of his fate, despite numerous attempts to obtain information from various authorities.
Mandated by the family, Alkarama brought this disappearance to the attention of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) on 2 October 2009.
Serious suspicions persist regarding the responsibility of the State’s security services at the time of Mr. Hosni’s enforced disappearance, given their past practices of abduction and arbitrary detention of Tunisian citizens. However, due to the political changes that have since taken place, the victim’s family has the right to hope that a full investigation will finally shed light on Mr. Hosni’s fate through an impartial and independent process.
Tunisia, as a State Party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance since the 2011 revolution, has a legal obligation to conduct an effective and thorough investigation whenever a person is subjected to enforced disappearance. The Tunisian State must provide clear and transparent answers to the UN Working Group regarding Mr. Hosni’s suspicious disappearance, whose fate remains unknown to this day.
As a State Party to the Convention, the Tunisian authorities must redouble their efforts to uncover the truth behind enforced disappearances and other serious human rights violations from a past that Tunisian civil society hopes is now behind them.