Nobel Peace Prize for Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet for helping the country's transition to democracy.
The Nobel committee said the group – made up of civil society organisations – had made a "decisive contribution" to democracy after the 2011 revolution. It said the quartet helped establish a political process when the country "was on the brink of civil war". While other countries - Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria - either reverted to authoritarian rule or descended into violence and chaos, Tunisia managed a successful transition to democracy.
Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet, awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize
Tunisia's revolution - also known as the Jasmine Revolution - began in late 2010 and led to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, followed by the country's first free democratic elections last year.
Tunisian soldiers serving as gendarmes - a military force charged with police duties among civilians – during the Tunisian revolution
The National Dialogue Quartet was formed in 2013, two years after the revolution, when security in the country was threatened following the assassination of two key politicians and deadly clashes between Islamists and secular parts of society.
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011, ousted in January 2011 following Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution
The Quartet has played a key role in mediating between the different parties in the country's post-revolution government. It created a national dialogue between the country's Islamist and secular parties amid deepening political and economic crisis in 2013.
Northern Tunisia
The quartet is made up of four organisations: the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League, and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.
Said a spokesperson of the General Labour Union - one of the groups in the quartet,
"This effort by our youth has allowed the country to turn the page on dictatorship.”
(All images - credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)
