CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Elsoudany, Ragab |
|---|---|
| Title | Contactless Collusion: The EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding and the Shrinking Civic Space for Tunisian Civil Society Supporting Migrants |
| Summary | This thesis critically explores the human rights implications of the 2023 EU–Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). While debates often focus on migrants’ rights, I argue that externalization policies also significantly affect civil society organizations (CSOs) supporting migrants, contributing directly, in the case of the MoU, to the shrinking civic space for solidarity in Tunisia. Drawing on Manners’ normative power concept and Huysmans’ securitization migration theory, I demonstrate how the EU’s prioritization of border security undermines its normative commitments, particularly to human rights. Analyzing policy documents, scholarly literature, and stakeholder interviews, I provide evidence that the MoU reinforced Tunisia’s authoritarian practices, enabling systematic repression against migrant solidarity networks. Interviews with Tunisian human rights defenders, an EU advocacy officer, and an EU delegation representative reveal how the EU’s deliberate silence and inaction toward violations committed under the MoU have compromised its credibility among local civil society actors. The thesis points to possible legal avenues within the EU legal system to hold the Union accountable for its complicity in these human rights abuses, underscoring the need for reforms in EU external migration policy and the establishment of robust legal accountability mechanisms. Ultimately, the study argues that unless the EU integrates genuine human rights conditionality into externalization practices, its credibility as a global human rights actor will continue to deteriorate. |
| Supervisor | Granger, Marie-Pierre |
| Department | Legal Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/elsoudany_ragab.pdf |
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