Tunisian democracy group wins Nobel Peace Prize

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Kaci Kullmann Five, the new head of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee, announces the winner of 2015 Nobel peace prize during a press conference in Oslo, Norway, Friday Oct. 9, 2015. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday that the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet. (Heiko Junge/NTB scanpix via AP)  NORWAY OUT
Kaci Kullmann Five, the new head of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee, announces the winner of 2015 Nobel peace prize during a press conference in Oslo, Norway, Friday Oct. 9, 2015. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday that the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet. (Heiko Junge/NTB scanpix via AP) NORWAY OUT

A Tunisian democracy group won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its contributions to the first and most successful Arab Spring movement.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy” in the North African country following its 2011 revolution.

“It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war,” the committee said in its citation.

The prize is a huge victory for small Tunisia, whose young and still shaky democracy suffered two extremist attacks this year that killed 60 people and devastated the tourism industry.

Tunisian protesters sparked uprisings across the Arab world in 2011 that overthrew dictators and upset the status quo. Tunisia is the only country in the region to painstakingly build a democracy, involving a range of political and social forces in dialogue to create a constitution, legislature and democratic institutions.

“More than anything, the prize is intended as an encouragement to the Tunisian people, who despite major challenges have laid the groundwork for a national fraternity which the committee hopes will serve as an example to be followed by other countries,” committee chair Kaci Kullmann Five said.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee  handed the award to the National Dialogue Quartet for its "decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011. The group includes a labor union, a trade confederation, a human rights organization and a lawyers group.
The Nobel Peace Prize Committee handed the award to the National Dialogue Quartet for its “decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011. The group includes a labor union, a trade confederation, a human rights organization and a lawyers group.

The National Dialogue Quartet is made up of four key organizations in Tunisian civil society: the Tunisian General Labour Union; the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts; the Tunisian Human Rights League; and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.

Kullmann Five said the prize was for the quartet as a whole, not the four individual organizations.

The decision came as a surprise to many, with speculation having focused on Europe’s migrant crisis or the Iran-U.S. nuclear deal in July.

“It is a very good prize that tries to get into the heart of the conflict in the Muslim world,” said Oeyvind Stenersen, a Nobel historian. “But it was a bit bewildering. It was very unexpected.”

There were 273 candidates nominated for the 2015 peace prize, five fewer than in 2014.

The award capped a week of Nobel Prize announcements, with the winners of the medicine, physics, chemistry and literature awards presented earlier in Stockholm.

The economics award — not an original Nobel Prize but created in 1968 — will be announced on Monday.

WELL DESERVED

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom has congratulated the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for winning the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize and says the prize is well-deserved.

Wallstrom told Sweden’s state broadcaster SVT “it is a long and difficult process to achieve democratic reforms in a country that has been subjected to such a difficult situation, but it (Tunisia) has done everything right and it has been done with active support from civil society.”

She calls Tunisia “one of few examples of success” following the Arab spring uprisings and says she hopes the prize will help inspire other countries that are struggling to reform.

She particularly praised the country’s establishment of a new constitution that was anchored among women and young people and its attempts to establish consensus between different parties.

 

 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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2 responses to “Tunisian democracy group wins Nobel Peace Prize”

  1. This is totally unfair to other freedom groups around the world that are fighting for the exact same thing as this group. Nobel stupidity at work again, just like when they gave it to Obama

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Now, now, O …. there are different award categories. Everyone gets a shot somewhere in the lists.
      And this $$ can go to the advertising ‘the quartet’ needs to do to explain and educate ‘the people’ about the whole concept. At least, most Tunisians are willing to listen.

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