Rights Vanessa Szakal 08 March 2017

Politics aside, civil society pushes for an end to violence against women 

In anticipation of International Women’s Day on March 8, Tunisian civil society organizations are campaigning for the expedient adoption of legislation concerning the elimination of violence against women. The Tunisian Association of Women Democrats (ATFD), the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LTDH), and other non-governmental associations who are the first recourse for women victims of violence, are pushing for the adoption of a pending draft law, even while one of their primary critiques regarding the text is its failure to recognize the essential role played by non-governmental actors.

Politics Vanessa Szakal 03 March 2017

Chahed courts the IMF, Tunisian General Labor Union defiant

On February 25, Youssef Chahed announced the appointment of new heads to several ministries. The UGTT lost not a minute in denouncing what it called a politically-driven and unilateral decision to replace Abid Briki, former UGTT Under Secretary General, with Khalil Ghariani, head of social affairs for the UTICA, as Minister of Public Service. In a statement published on February 26, the UGTT deemed the move a deliberate provocation, and made in the interest of unblocking the second installment of a $2.9 billion loan from the IMF. The conflict, which culminated in Ghariani’s refusal to accept the nomination and the subsequent suspension of the Ministry of Public Service on March 2, is the most recent flare-up in the tenuous relationship between the current government and country’s largest workers union.

Politics Vanessa Szakal 27 February 2017

Tunisia follows lead on Europe’s migration strategy

Since the beginning of February, the EU’s revamped strategy to reduce the number of migrants arriving on European shores has suscitated fervent reactions from south to north of the Mediterranean. On February 3, European Council members met in La Valetta, Malta, where they signed a declaration committing to « step up our work with Libya as the main country of departure as well as with its North African and sub-Saharan neighbors. » On the heels of the summit, the Tunisian government has, more or less, followed the lead of its European partners, having been promised sizeable economic packages in exchange for cooperation in curbing the human flow across the Mediterranean.

Environment Diane Robert 08 February 2017

Investigation: Mohamed Ayachi Ajroudi grabs Hammamet’s forest 

On Sunday, January 22, a group of friends set off to Jbel el Faouara in the hills of Hammamet, where they were threatened by security forces at the service of wealthy businessman Mohamed Ayachi Ajroudi, who is expanding his palace in the foothills, illegally. The following Sunday, residents of Hammamet organized a picnic protest recalling their right to access the green space they love.

Society Rima Sghaier 19 January 2017

30 seconds to ISIS

What is certain: the phenomenon of terrorism is here, a deep-seated crisis for which shooting a few terrorists to death is not the solution. As more than 5,000 Tunisians are currently fighting for al Qaeda and the Islamic State, officials and parliament members today are facing the controversial question of how the country will confront “jihadis” coming back home. The answer will be in the State’s actions and will determine whether we decide to be thirty seconds to ISIS, or else to get our act together.

Culture Vanessa Szakal 12 January 2017

Reviving the Beys

Broad-faced, imposing Qsar Essaïd in Tunis was the palace Sadok Bey, one of Tunisia’s many rulers under the Ottoman Empire. It was here where Sadok Bey adopted Qanoun Eddawla, the country’s first constitution. Two decades later, he signed the Treaty of Bardo, marking the beginning of the French protectorate. Today, sixty years after independence and six years after the revolution, Qsar Essaïd has been opened to the public with “The Awakening of a Nation,” an exhibition on a period of Tunisia’s history (1837-1881) that modern regimes preferred to forget.

Culture Vanessa Szakal 14 December 2016

What authorities don’t say, cinema does: « Life is short » in Gabes

From the center of Gabes, a 365-degree view of the city offers a stunning panorama of the world’s only seaside oasis, an urban setting scattered with green-grey palm trees, a blue-grey sea, and, jutting up from the main port, the Tunisian Chemical Group’s sky-high factory topped by thick plumes of smoke. It is a grey December morning on the weekend of Gabes’ short-film festival, “Life is short.” Even in the midst of a three-day cultural event animated by film directors, artists, university students, and cinephiles, the unsettling omnipresence of the factory close by inspires the festival’s title with sharp irony.

Rights Haythem Guesmi 06 December 2016

The complex ideology of Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission

The Tunisian TDC will be praised and it will be blamed as it has been the case with previous renewed Truth and Reconciliation Commission worldwide. The high stakes that the TDCT carry within an ongoing unstable political and economic local and regional contexts insure that the established ideals of justice and social and political restoration will be scrutinized according to one’s subjective view of what the post-revolution Tunisia should be like.

Rights Henda Chennaoui 25 November 2016

Truth Commission Public Hearings: Kamel Matmati and Tunisia’s disappeared

Last Thursday, November 17, Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission held the country’s first public hearings with victims of human rights violations carried out under the Bourguiba and Ben Ali regimes. Torture victims—including former political prisoners Sami Brahem and Gilbert Naccache—as well as the families of the disappeared and martyrs of the revolution testified on national television.

Economy Aziz Krichen 17 November 2016

Jemna: The peasant question and democratic revolution

Recently, all we talk about is Jemna. It has become the new bone of contention. Exchanges are violent, charged with furor and raised voices. In the médias aux ordres, the most unlikely of arguments are used to denounce the occupation of land by peasants. Such arguments say more about the fantasies of their authors than they do about the reality of the situation.

Civil Society Vanessa Szakal 16 November 2016

Governance of civil society associations: the gap between legislation and practice

Since the revolution, the number of civil society associations in Tunisia has more doubled, reaching some 19 thousand. In the context of establishing a “participative democracy” with citizens and civil society as principal actors (Article 139 of the new constitution), Decree-law 88 of September 2011 guaranteed the “freedom to create, belong to, and carry out activities through associations, and the strengthening of the role of civil society organizations, as well as their development and respect for their independence.”

Rights Vanessa Szakal 11 November 2016

Where are our children? Families of migrants lost at sea protest

“Give us the truth : where are the children?” On the rainy morning of November 9, a few dozen middle-age and elderly women and men occupy the stairs before closed doors of the Ministry of Social Affairs in Tunis. Grey sky and cold air accentuate the solemnity of the gathering, yet another demonstration by the families of Tunisians who disappeared while crossing the Mediterranean to the shores of Italy.

Environment Diane Robert 08 November 2016

Report: International mobilization against pollution in Gabes

For its stopover in Tunisia, the Ibn Battuta Odyssey of Alternatives, a mobilization across the Mediterranean which culminates at the COP22 in Marrakech, set up camp in Gabes, although the boats had docked in Bizerte. Three days of exchanges and debates concerning an environmentally- and socially-destructive economic model and potential alternatives drew attention to the deplorable environmental situation in Gabes, and were marked by heightened tension following the death of a STEG worker who was asphyxiated by the fumes of the industrial zone. Report.

Rights Ihsan Mejdi 31 October 2016

Jemna: Genesis of a model, or end of a social experiment?

The political implications of Jemna’s social activism on State policies are still cloudy. Some State officials, such as Mehdi Ben Gharbia, have not shied away from praising Jemna’s experience on television, saying that it only needs a legal framework. Other officials however, including Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, are solely offering a Socratic answer regarding Jemna: “All I know is that I know nothing.”