Tunisian Nobel ‘an inspiration to the region — UN’s Ban

The Nobel Committee might have felt the recognition was more than due for organizations that worked for peace despite such huge odds.

In Tunisia, the winners rejoiced. He added that this tribute highlights the lasting progress of an inclusive process. The Arab Spring began with great hopes that were soon replaced with grave doubts. The country’s economy remains sluggish. Thus in 2005, 1995 and 1985, the prize went to organizations, individuals or movements working for the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons. With the Quartet’s support, Tunisians voted in free elections, forged a new constitution that upholds human rights and equality for all people, including women and minorities, and formed a national unity government, including secular and Islamist parties, showing that democracy and Islam can indeed thrive together.

“It’s a message that dialogue can lead us on the right path. This prize is a message for our region to put down arms and sit and talk at the negotiation table”. French President Francois Hollande said it “rewards the success of the democratic transition in Tunisia, while British Prime Minister David Cameron said it helped make Tunisia a “beacon of hope” for the region”.

The powerful labor union described it as a “tribute to martyrs of a democratic Tunisia”.

“The Tunisian road to democracy has been a source of inspiration and hope for all of us”.

Tunisia was once under French rule and still has significant trade with France and many French speakers.

The 96th Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to four groups from Tunisian civil society who saved the country’s fragile transition from dictatorship to democracy by mediating between Islamists and secularists.

The Quartet was among 273 contenders, of which two highly favoured eminent personalities were Angela Merkel and Pope Francis. More than half of the time, one autocrat has been followed by another.

Syria, for example, has become a killing field, a maelstrom of carnage and ideological poison that is now spilling into many other countries. The announcement was made this Friday (9th). Yet the Nobel Peace Prize committee even mentioned “the Jasmine Revolution” in making the award, an expression dismissed by locals because it is the same name used by the former dictator Ben Ali for his coup of 1987.

In Tunisia, as in Egypt, the strongest political force to emerge after the revolution was an Islamist group, called Ennahda.

Then again, the Nobel committee operates with remarkable secrecy.

“Democratic processes are not finished there yet and such awards are important because they reassure that the right things are being done”. Tunisian “vibrant civil society with demands for respect for basic human rights”, as in the words of the Nobel Prize Committee, should be further reinforced in order to achieve these promises. A new, enlightened constitution was also adopted previous year. Farhat Hached, who played a critical role in building the UGTT, was assassinated by French colonial forces in 1952.

Houcine Abassi, the leader of the Tunisian General Labour Union, told The Associated Press he was “overwhelmed” by the award.

I this October. 13, 2014 file picture members of the quartet…

Tunisia’s nascent democracy now faces serious security threats, including from the Islamic state group, which claimed two attacks this year that killed 59 foreign tourists.