Our work with human rights was not easy at all. We went through many, many challenges and many difficulties. You know, the two last decades were challenges because the political will of the oppressive regimes was against human rights in general. And it was challenging really to work in very hostile environment. And for me and for my friends from the Arab human rights movement, we´ve faced many, many problems dealing with the security institutions, dealing with the political ruling parties. It was this was kind of a challenge for us.
Second big challenge: about the country, our culture. And it was not easy to introduce human rights concepts– the universality of human rights concepts in our region. And the resistance was not only the resistance of ordinary people. It was also the resistance of some representatives of the elites in the Arab countries. And I think that it was very difficult to convince some representatives of political parties, of even some writers, to convince them of the universality of human rights. Because of the legacy of the political discourse. Discourse based neither on the nationalism and also on the closed discourses, political discourses.
These kinds of challenges we faced. And also we´ve been under attack, under attack for our relations with the international networks, the human rights worldwide networks. Under attacks for our work to develop networks between human rights activists from the Arab countries and African countries. But in spite of all this, of all these problems, I think that the Arab human rights movement succeeded to have some achievements, to achieve some important successes.
First, to introduce the human rights culture in the Arab countries. And to challenge the political, social, and cultural discourses, based mainly on authoritarian concepts and authoritarian practices. And I think that we succeeded, for example, to challenge all these discourses by introducing women´s rights, by developing work about minorities, about the personal rights.
This was a real challenge for us. But I think we achieved a kind of education activities. The second, I think, big achievement was to challenge the– to analyze the mechanisms of authoritarian regimes. And to demonstrate that these regimes are not are not so solid. And that we can challenge them. We can challenge them through developing civil society organizations, through developing the political culture within the trade unions, with political parties.
This also was part of what we achieved. I think the third thing also was to resist. This was one of the main achievements, to resist, to survive. And I think that we spent a lot of time developing strategies, tactics on how to survive. On how to protect our organizations. How to develop some relationships with normal people and make people protect our work, believe in our work, and protect our work.
I think that this kind of achievement– of course, we´ve been always faced by a kind of discourse, trying to tell people that we are just a group of people working on foreign ideas and strange idea for our societies, but the revolutions in the Arab countries and what all these kind of waves of change, I think, that demonstrate that the human rights– our work was not strange to our to societies. And that we demonstrated that the human rights culture, the human rights concepts, the democratic concepts are not strange to our societies.
Abdel Basset Ben Hassen is a Tunisian freedom advocate who has dedicated much of his adult life to the promotion of human rights in the Arab world. His interest in the field was sparked during his university days while participating in student political movements that focused on promoting democracy and human rights.
After graduation, Ben Hassen joined the Arab Institute for Human Rights (AIHR) where he worked to train thousands of freedom activists across the region on developing strategies for promoting their causes. Later, he joined the Ford Foundation in Egypt and worked directly with farmers, fisherman, and laborers in depressed areas to encourage greater human rights discourse and educate the poor on their basic rights. These efforts proved challenging as authoritarian leaders in the Middle East and Africa posed numerous roadblocks to the work of civil society in promoting human rights and political initiatives. As a result, many were afraid to work for or cooperate with such organizations.
Today, Ben Hassen is the President of AIHR and serves as a prominent voice in the international community for promoting human rights in the Arab world. Ben Hassen is also the chair of the Tunisian National Committee for the Support to Refugees and served as a member of Tunisia’s High Committee for the Realization of the Objectives of the Revolution, Political Reform and Democratic Transition.
In addition to his advocacy work, Ben Hassen is a poet whose books have been translated into French, Italian, and German.
Tunisia is situated on the Mediterranean coastline. It has a population of fewer than 11 million people and is the smallest nation in North Africa in land area. In 2010 and 2011, it became the first of the Arab countries to revolt against decades of dictatorial rule, launching the Arab Spring and a wave of change across the region. Tunisia has a developing economy, focused largely on agriculture, tourism, and light industry.
Tunisia has been settled since ancient times. In the 10th century B.C., it was part of the Phoenician Empire. The city of Carthage, near the modern capital of Tunis, was established in the 9th century B.C. In 149 B.C., the Roman Empire conquered the Phoenicians. Islam was introduced to what is now Tunisia in the 7th century A.D., and the area formed part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. In 1881, Tunisia became a protectorate of France. A strong French cultural element continues to this day.
In 1956, Habib Bourguiba led Tunisia to independence from France. His political party, later known as the Constitutional Democratic Rally, went on to dominate Tunisian politics for more than 50 years. Bourguiba’s Tunisia was a largely secular state and was viewed as one of the most progressive in the Arab world on women’s issues. In 1987, Bourguiba was replaced in a “bloodless coup” by his prime minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Ben Ali continued many of Bourguiba’s policies, but ruled with an increasingly heavy hand. The Ben Ali regime was repressive and corrupt, with a dismal human rights record. The regime showed little tolerance for dissent, and lashed out at opposition voices in politics, civil society, and the media.
The Tunisian Revolution began in December 2010, when Mohamed Bouazizi, a young street vendor, set himself on fire in protest over harassment by a local official. Bouazizi’s act led to mass demonstrations across the country, protesting the lack of human rights, poor economic conditions, and corruption and nepotism in the Ben Ali regime. On January 14, 2011, Ben Ali stepped down and fled the country. On October 23, 2011, Tunisia held its first free elections, forming a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution and lead the country to general elections. The role of religion in society is among the most important issues facing the assembly and country.
Under the interim Constituent Assembly, Tunisia has experienced considerable political upheaval, but has begun to consolidate its democracy. There is a major fault line between Islamist and secular political forces. In 2013, several political assassinations resulted in widespread protests and demonstrators calling for the nation’s Islamist-led government to be removed. In January of 2014, after two years of debate, the Constituent Assembly ratified the nation’s new constitution. The constitution is considered progressive for the nation and has many human rights guarantees. With the ratification of the constitution, elections are scheduled for autumn 2014.
Freedom House’s 2013 Freedom in the World report categorized Tunisia as “partly free”. The nation received the following ratings on a scale with one being the most free and seven being the least: 3.5 as an overall freedom rating, a four in civil liberties and a three in political rights. Tunisia’s Internet and press were also categorized as “partly free” in subsequent Freedom House reports.
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