“We can’t speak about freedom in a country like Tunisia when we have a blogger in jail because he is writing on his Facebook about the army,” Henda Chennaoui, a prominent Tunisian human rights activist, told Al-Monitor.Ĭhennaoui also said that international organizations and reports tend to focus on major cities where conditions are generally better. Following an appeal, Ayari’s sentence was reduced to one year. In a recent case highlighting the need for legal reform, a military court tried and sentenced controversial blogger Yassine Ayari in absentia to three years in prison on charges of defaming the military for blog posts he wrote in August 2014. The country also has yet to undertake serious legal reform, leading to continued concerns about the independence of the judiciary, functioning of the court system and legal codes dating from the era of dictatorship, according to Repucci. It takes time for those institutions to take effect,” Repucci told Al-Monitor. “When you have a corrupt society, that’s not going to change quickly with a new government, a new political system or a new constitution. These practices embedded nepotism and bribery as part of the culture. Tunisia is still grappling with the legacy of a political, economic and social system that was engineered over the course of decades to concentrate business and political power within a small handful of elites, according to a World Bank report released last year. Local human rights activists also see much more work that needs to be done to expand and preserve the space of freedom within the country, and average Tunisians struggling in a stagnant economy are waiting to feel the tangible dividends of their newfound freedoms. The completion of free and transparent parliamentary and presidential elections at the end of 2014, as well as the adoption of a new constitution, the practice of dialogue and compromise among political leaders and strong civil society engagement were the primary reasons for the upgrade, according to Sarah Repucci, director of the Freedom in the World project.ĭespite the progress, and as suggested by the lower rating on civil liberties, challenges persist in Tunisia, particularly those related to corruption and the rule of law. For civil liberties, however, the country received a three out of seven, the same as in 2014. Tunisia received perfect scores on indices related to the electoral process and political participation, and the highest overall score for the general category of political rights. 28, by singling it out as a "notable exception" in a year that otherwise saw the state of freedom worsen in virtually every region.īased on a rubric drawn from international human rights norms that examines political rights and civil liberties, the report categorizes countries as "not free," "partly free" or "free." After jumping from "not free" to "partly free" following the overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisia became the first Arab country since the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 to be rated as "free" in the report. The Washington-based nongovernmental organization Freedom House acknowledged Tunisia’s progress in its annual Freedom in the World report, released Jan. TUNIS, Tunisia - Tunisia’s largely peaceful transition toward democracy following its 2011 revolution stands in stark contrast to the conflict, repression and return of dictatorship seen in other countries that experienced Arab Spring protests.
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