By IndiaTomorrow.net
Oslo/New Delhi, 09 Oct 2015: The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition of civil society organizations, has won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia,” the Norwegian Nobel Academy announced on Friday.
According to an official statement of the Nobel Academy, the quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 when the democratization process was in danger of collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest.
“It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war. It was thus instrumental in enabling Tunisia, in the space of a few years, to establish a constitutional system of government guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief,” said The Nobel Academy in its statement.
The Quartet is a group of four organizations that were central in the attempts to build a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011, an intensive campaign of civil resistance against high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, lack of the freedom of speech and poor living conditions.
The four organizations that comprise the Quartet are: the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.
(With inputs from IANS)
