Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet awarded Nobel Peace Prize

National Dialogue Quartet, a group that helped preserve Tunisia’s dreams of democracy in 2013, has won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, with the Nobel Prize Committee citing its “decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia.”

Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet beat out Pope Francis and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel – and 270 other candidates – to take the prize, which the Nobel Committee said had guaranteed “fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief”.

The Arab Spring began in Tunisia in late 2010, when Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor who was the victim of endless harassment from local government officials, set himself on fire, triggering an uprising and soon a revolution.

“I would call it a make or break moment in the Tunisian development after the Jasmine Revolution”.

Applauding the Quartet’s effort, the Nobel Committee said today, “More than anything, the prize is intended as an encouragement to the Tunisian people, who despite major challenges have laid the groundwork for a national fraternity” that could be a model for other countries.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the quartet for providing an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war.

This video includes an image from Getty Images. “Their common interest was democracy in Tunisia”.

The group is dedicated to creating dialogue between disparate elements of Tunisian society.

Yet the fact that the push for democratic change has succeeded in Tunisia while it has failed elsewhere owes much to the Quartet.

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

“This a brilliant example, I think Tunisia is one of the Arab countries that has done best since the so-called Arab Spring and the upheavals in that part of the world”, said Ahmad Fawzi, chief United Nations spokesman in Geneva.

It has a history of involvement in politics, even joining the ranks of the government after independence in 1956, before falling out with Tunisia’s first president Habib Bourguiba.

“It is a very good prize that tries to get into the heart of the conflict in the Muslim world”, said Oeyvind Stenersen, a Nobel historian.

“This is an important recognition of the key role that civil society can play in a country emerging from years of dictatorship and human rights violations”, said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

But its democracy remains fragile, with the country rocked by a series of high-profile political killings and bloody recent attacks by Islamic State militants that killed 22 people, mostly tourists, at a Tunis museum in March, and another 38 foreigners in a beach resort massacre in June.

The prize comes the day after unidentified assailants shot repeatedly at a lawmaker and prominent sports magnate in Sousse, underscoring a sense of uncertainty in the city, which depends heavily on tourism.

The award capped a week of Nobel Prize announcements, with the winners of the medicine, physics, chemistry and literature awards presented earlier in Stockholm.

Amnesty worldwide was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977.

Abdessattar Ben Moussa of the Human Rights League – another of the quartet – said the award “fills us with joy” at a time when Tunisia “is going through a period marked by political tensions and terrorist threats”.

The Peace Prize decision Friday came as a surprise to many, with speculation having focused on Europe’s migrant crisis or the Iran-U.S. nuclear deal in July.