Mediation group that helped sign in progressive constitution gets international recognition
A mediation group credited with bringing Tunisia back from the brink of civil war was awarded the 2015 Nobel peace prize.
In March 2014, Positive News reported that Tunisia had signed a new and progressive constitution. Significant advances for women were among a catalogue of new rights for citizens in what was lauded as the most progressive constitution in the Arab world.
The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition of unionists, employers, lawyers and human rights activists, made a “decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy,” said chairman of the Nobel committee Kaci Kullmann Five on awarding them the prize.
They made a decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy
Tunisia’s uprising was the first and most successful of the Arab spring. While other countries, including Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria, reverted to authoritarian rule or fell into violence and social chaos, Tunisia is considered to have successfully transitioned to democracy.
In 2013, the coalition brokered talks between the country’s Islamist and secular coalition parties, against a backdrop of political and economic crisis. Tunisia’s revolution – also known as the Jasmine Revolution – began in late 2010 and led to the ousting of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, followed by the country’s first free democratic elections.
Photo: Floral decorations behind the statue of Alfred Nobel at the 2015 Nobel peace prize awards
